Full List of Winners from the Inaugural NZ Podcast Awards, presented by rova
11 November 2021
The 2021 NZ Podcast Awards Presented by rova has today announced its inaugural winners.
An esteemed pool of local and international judges have trawled through submissions from 170+ Kiwi podcasts, which came from 400+ nominations.
The rova Listeners’ Choice Award, won by indie podcast The Shit Show, received more than 17,000 votes in total from podcast fans across the country.
Richard North, Co-Founder of the NZ Podcast Awards, said: “We’ve been so impressed by the breadth and quality of the Kiwi podcasting scene. Our judges have had a really tough job choosing winners for each of the categories and it was an incredibly close call due to the high standard of entrants. The aim of the awards was to shine a light on the industry and reward all the hard work that podcasters put in. We’ve taken a lot of learnings from this first year and next year promises to be even bigger and better.”
“Judging for each category took into account a combination of judges’ scores (including points for entertainment value, audio quality, and more) as well as listenership and fan votes. In many categories, there was very little between the top five or six podcasts, which is a strong indicator of the high quality of podcasts being produced here in Aotearoa”
The Shit Show also took out Gold in the Acast Best Independent Podcast Award, winning a RØDE prize pack.
RNZ took out the Best Publisher Award, edging out Stuff and Rova for the Gold. RNZ’s hugely popular Black Sheep won Gold in both the True Crime and Culture & Arts categories.
iHeart (NZME) fared well in the radio crossover categories, winning multiple awards, including Best Comedy & Entertainment, Best News & Politics and Best Radio Podcast.
Mediworks/rova dominated the Maori and Pasifika Podcast or Host award, winning both gold and silver, whilst Stuff are represented by several excellent podcasts including One Hot Minute, Collapse and He’ll be Right. The Spinoff saw success with The Real Pod (Silver) and Business is Boring (Gold)
While the large radio networks gained plenty of recognition, independent podcasts delivered the majority of awards, with The Girls Uninterrupted, Get Flushed and The Provise Project all proving popular with judges and fan voters.
Well-known comedian Urzila Carlson also scored Gold in the Best New Podcast category, presented by Triton Digital, for That’s Enough Already!. Judges said: “There are some fantastic guests on this podcast, but the star of the show is 100% Urzila. Her laugh is infectious and her style is relatable to both guests and listeners.”
Best Culture & Arts Podcast, presented by Triton Digital
Gold Black Sheep
Silver He'll Be Right
Bronze Resonate: 10 Years of Brooke Fraser's Flag
Best Entertainment & Comedy Podcast, presented by rova
Gold The Matt & Jerry Show
Silver The Real Pod
Bronze Mai Morning Crew Catch Up Podcast
Best Sports Podcast
Gold The Fearless Podcast Powered by Puma - The Girls Uninterrupted
Silver The Rock's Sporting Rumble
Bronze The Agenda
Best News & Politics Podcast, presented by Digital Commons
Gold Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive
Silver The Mike Hosking Breakfast
Bronze Nine to Noon
Best Technology Podcast, presented by Dot Social
Gold The 20 Degree Podcast
Best Business Podcast, presented by Strategy
Gold Business is Boring
Silver NZ Everyday Investor
Bronze Get Flushed
Best Maori or Pasifika Podcast or Host
Gold Mai Morning Crew Catch Up Podcast
Silver Tic-Heads with Uncle Tics & Randell
Bronze Once a Panther
Best Podcast by a Kiwi Abroad, presented RNZ
Gold The Andy Rowe Show
Silver Transformations with Jayne
Bronze Lawyer on Air
Best International Podcast, presented by FlashFomo
Gold Earth Eclipsed
Silver Beyond the Feed
Bronze Funny People Talking
Best Radio Podcast, presented by bluereef®️ Studio
Gold Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive
Silver. The Matt & Jerry Show
Bronze Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan
Best Science & Environment Podcast
Gold Our Changing World
Silver One Hot Minute
Bronze Fight for the Wild
Acast Best Independent Podcast
Gold The Shit Show
Silver That's Enough Already!
Bronze History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast
Best True Crime Podcast
Gold Black Sheep
Silver A Moment in Crime
Bronze Crimes NZ
Best New Podcast, presented by Triton Digital
Gold That's Enough Already!
Silver He'll Be Right
Bronze Collapse
Best Current Affairs Podcast
Gold Mediawatch
Silver Saturday Morning
Bronze One Hot Minute
Best Podcast Publisher
Gold RNZ
Silver Stuff
Bronze MediaWorks / rova
rova Listeners' Choice Award
Gold The Shit Show
Silver Mai Morning Crew Catch Up Podcast
Bronze The Girls Uninterrupted