HITZ FM's 'The C Word' podcast gets shout out from TV host James Corden

Astro Radio's HITZ station and radio presenter Calista Liew received a shoutout from talk show host James Corden in a recent episode of The Late Late James Corden Show. In one segment of the show, Corden asked Nick Bernstein, senior VP of late-night programming at ViacomCBS, which podcasts he has been on so far and Bernstein said he recently did his second Malaysian podcast and this time round it was with "The C Word". "It was a blast, it was a great time. Shout out to Calista!" he added before Corden chimed in and rallied the crowd to give Liew a shout out. 

An original podcast series from Syok, the digital platform of Astro Radio, "The C Word with Calista" debuted on September 2020. It currently has 22 episodes with three seasons, 10 episodes per season. The podcast previously featured familiar names in the entertainment industry such as beauty blogger Emily Quak, TV host Mark O'dea, and content creator Faiz Najib, among others. Kenny Ong, CEO of Astro Radio, said in his LinkedIn post that it is not every day one can get a shout out from Corden. "There is no better Malaysia Day gift for Liew and HITZ than this," he added. He also told A+M that the company is extremely proud of Liew. 

As a fan ofThe Late Late James Corden Show, Ong said Liew has been binge-watching it after the lockdown started as she loved the style and idea behind it. She ended up sending a direct message on Instagram to Bernstein, enquiring if he was interested to be on her show and Ong said Bernstein agreed.

"All of us at HITZ and Astro Radio believe in empowering our talents to explore their passion, and just like proud parents, we will continue to support and cheer them on because a win for them, is a win for all of us too," he added. The episode with Bernstein was initially scheduled to be released in the final week of September but Astro Radio plans to bring it forward due to the special episode mentioned by Corden.

According to Ong, Syok podcasts now garner roughly 750,000 listeners monthly, with a growth of 136% year-on-year as of August 2021. "We hope that this new mention by Corden on his show will help grow overall podcast listenership in Malaysia and give Malaysian podcasters more visibility globally," said Ong. 

He added that podcasts are becoming a norm amidst the pandemic and that Astro Radio is not only focusing on the local experience. Instead, it is branching out to other mediums beyond podcasts. For example, Liew and other Astro Radio talents are also creating content on radio and social media, and these efforts help highlight underserved but deserving voices, Ong said. 

Liew also expressed her excitement at being mentioned by Corden. In an Instagram post, she said the past few days have been "very unexpected, topsy turvy" but they were definitely exciting. "I had such a fun time chatting with Bernstein for the next episode of my podcast, and I can't wait for you to hear it!" she said.

Separately, another Southeast Asian was also name dropped by a US talk show host in July. Singaporean rapper Yung Raja received a shoutout from Jimmy Fallon on the "Do Not Play" segment on The Tonight Show during which Fallon pulled out a cover of Mami and roasted the song. The song was picked up organically by Fallon, resulting in Yung Raja's stream numbers jump nearly 4,000 overnight to more than 583k. His MV views also jumped over 11.7k to 170k overnight.

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