In an ironic twist of fate, today is both the day that Hae Min Lee went missing, and the day the Serial podcast itself also disappeared.
Host Sarah Koenig announced, via the show’s blog, that Serial will be releasing new episodes on a bi-weekly basis instead of the story-told-week-by-week model the show used last season.
“I know! I know…it’s maybe not what you wanted to hear,” Koenig wrote. “But, there’s a good and exciting reason, which is that we’re adding more material.”
Executive Producer Julie Snyder told The New York Times that since the show began airing, more people are willing to talk about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s case and that has given them more material to report on.
Koenig wrote that the series will gain at least one full episode, bumping it up to a 13-episode season. The show, which was meant to resume in the new year on Thursday, will now post its fifth episode on Jan. 21.