In each episode of MrBallen<\/em>, series host John Allen appears in the center of the frame, usually wearing a plaid shirt with a couple of buttons undone and a baseball cap turned backward, and slowly talks viewers through the events of a \u201cstrange, dark, and mysterious\u201d true crime story. Episodes with titles like \u201cWhat I saw in my room still haunts me\u201d and \u201cReal-life \u2018ghost ship\u2019 has a SECRET,\u201d bring in more than 40 million monthly views \u2014 a massive volume that still is not enough to put Allen in the upper echelon of YouTube influencers. But in podcasting? He\u2019s a star.<\/p>\n

Steven Cohen, a longtime audio industry sales executive, was shocked when he dug into the stats for the podcast version of MrBallen<\/em>, which launched in February. The show was \u201cputting up numbers that, honestly, having come from a reasonably big network, I had never seen,\u201d he told The Verge<\/em>. The opportunity was big enough that Cohen decided to leave his role as vice president of Audacy-owned podcast network Cadence13 to join the independent true crime show.<\/p>\n