The Projectionist has left the building.
Kyle Buchanan — a high-profile Los Angeles-based Hollywood writer for The New York Times — exited the newspaper on Friday after having served as a pop culture reporter and awards season columnist since 2018. Days later, it has been confirmed that he has partnered with Acast to launch The Kyle Buchanan Show, a video podcast set to debut in October.
Backed by Acast as the exclusive advertising, brand partnerships and distribution partner, The Kyle Buchanan Show will drop new episodes twice per week. The schedule starts on Tuesdays with “The Panel” featuring two to three rotating industry guests going long on the buzziest Hollywood stories of the moment, followed by Friday’s debut of “The Profile” featuring one-on-one chats with stars. The show will be available on Apple Podcasts, in both audio and video, and major podcast platforms.
“In a new media landscape overloaded with quick hits, nothing beats a real conversation,” Buchanan said in a statement. On X, where his career news became a trending topic today, he promised “access, insight and A-list guests” to come. “In fact, I think audiences and talent are hungrier than ever for talk that goes deep. The Kyle Buchanan Show will offer a genuine inside look at Hollywood, with a perspective that industry figures and fans can trust.”
During his tenure at NYT, Buchanan profiled such subjects as Nicole Kidman, Michael B. Jordan, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, Daniel Day-Lewis, Channing Tatum, Colman Domingo, Emily Blunt, Ethan Hawke, Amy Madigan, Zoe Saldaña, Kieran Culkin, Austin Butler and many more. The bulk of the year, Buchanan focused on awards season in his role as The Projectionist awards columnist.
He also expanded his profile as the author of the dishy best-seller, Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, an oral history-style investigation he pulled together from more than 130 interviews. Entertainment Weekly praised the tome as “no less jaw-dropping than the movie itself.”
He has described himself as just about “as Southern Californian as it gets” as he’s lived in the area all his life and stayed for school to study and graduate from USC. He’s written extensivley about awards and has won some in his real life: In 2021, Buchanan was named journalist of the year by the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Prior to the Times, Buchanan served as a senior editor at New York Magazine’s Vulture.
Acast’s stable of podcasts include Giggly Squad, The Comment Section With Drew Afualo and The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers. News of Buchanan’s departure and new gig was first reported by Variety.