Review: Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous

Identified hosts?
Yep. Ben Higgins and Ashley I.

Explained what the show is about?
Not really, but I got the impression that they will be covering episodes of the The Bachelorette.

Explained who they were?
No. Woulda been nice, but i’m guessing that 98.72 percent of the listening audience knew who they were.

Time to topic
Almost immediate. Perfect

Good chemistry among host(s)?
Yes. definitely.

Show structure/type
Review and conversation with 2 hosts and the ability to take calls.

Topic(s) discussed
They talked about The Bachelorette episode from the night before (season premiere it sounds like) | cringe worthy moments from the episode | Ben explained what it was like when preparing for his initial encounter with the Bachelorette (he was on season 20) | Ashley explained her experience when she first met the Bachelor (she was on season 19) | Ashely mentioned her admiration for the guys from Chris’ season | Ashley thinks the show is now about money instead of finding love | they took calls |their “boss” got on the air and talked about an awkward kiss from the episode | Ben spoke about his mother and grandmother seeing him kiss on TV | Jared (who used to mess with Ashley I) called in to talk about kissing on camera | his kiss with Ashley I on camera | protocol for kissing too early | confidence | remembering contestants’ names | most nerve wracking part of night one on the show | Brian Adams in concert |Ben’s singing abilities (he burst into song at the end of the episode)

Audio quality
Perfect. They’re with iHeartRadio so I don’t expect sub-par audio

Passion/personality
Absolutely. They both came across as passionate about the TV show and the podcast.

Mentioned socials/site(s)?
No

Mentioned schedule?
No, but from the looks of it, It’ll be coming out every Monday or Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday because the TV show airs on Mondays.

Mentioned hashtag?
No, but it looks like some are using #almostFamousPodcast. Hashtags are always good to mention on your show because it gives listeners a chance to interact and they’re searchable.

Asked anything of the audience/call-to-action(CTA)?
Yes subscribe on iHeartRadio​ and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts

Summary
I have never watched the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. I don’t think I ever will. Not my kind of show. Also, never ever heard of Ben or Ashley…ever. With that said…they were great! They were great together, they were great taking phone calls, they had great chemistry and they were great with their recap. Even though I’ve never seen the show, they were both able to convey what happened on the show because they were skillful in their description. This is extremely important as a broadcaster. You have to remember that the audience is listening, not looking. I have a really good understanding of the guys they mentioned from this new season of the TV show based simply off this podcast episode. I have to imagine it must be a great recap for their target audience (watchers of the TV show).

I loved the little in-studio audience they had as well.

I need to point one more thing out. I think I have a pretty good ear for great hosts in talk radio. There are some who just have “it”. Maybe one day I’ll write a detailed post on what exactly “it” is. Anyway, I have NO idea if Ben has a background in communications or broadcasting, but he’s really good on the mic. He gives me the vibe that if you handed him any subject to speak about, he would do a good job even if he didn’t know much about it all…because he’s just good at broadcasting. Kudos to him. I don’t know what he has going on in his life, but maybe he’ll consider doing more with his skill.

Recommendation
This was a really good debut episode, but I’d like to recommend just a few things. I’d recommend that they mention the hashtag on the show to prod listeners to use it. It also wouldn’t hurt if they asked users to show some love with a review. At the time of this writing, they’d already received over 70 . I bet they’d have much more if they just dropped a “hey guys, give us a rating in iTunes”. Especially since they seem so loved in the Bachelor/Bachelorette world. Actually, I think they might have referred to it as “Bachelor Nation”.

I would also suggest tweeting out a link to the show on Art19 instead of on iTunes. Lots of folks don’t have iPhones and they’re lazy. If you entice your followers to click away from social media to consume your content, the VERY next click they make should be the play button.

Shouts to Ben and Ashley. I think they’re going to have a lot of fun and create some great opportunities for themselves doing this show.

Link to episode
https://art19.com/shows/almost-famous-podcast/episodes/84352ed2-9c83-4c6c-8b54-4198c0031884

Link to socials
Ben on Twitter | Instagram
Ashley on Twitter | Instagram
Jared

Other links
Ashley on TV
Ben’s season of The Bachelor
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