Who? Weekly is a bi-weekly celebrity gossippodcast presented by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber. Focusing specifically on tabloid coverage of D-list celebrities, it tackles, according to the tagline, "everything you need to know about the celebrities you don't".
History
Who? Weekly began as an occasional newsletter written by friends and pop-culture writers Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber before spinning off into a podcast. The first episode was aired on January 18, 2016 on the HeadGum network. The podcast is currently released independently. In both the newsletter and in the podcast, celebrities, ex-reality television contestants, youtube stars, broadway actors, and social media influencers are categorized as either "Whos" or "Thems" – roughly D-list vs A-list celebrities – according to their name recognition and the nature of their fame. Whos and Thems are named for the likely response to hearing a person's name: "who?" vs "oh, them!" This extends into, for example, describing behavior as "who-y", if it is seen as self-promotional or tacky, for example producing "sponcon" or writing public apologies on Notes app. Although mainly dividing the celebrity landscape between "Whos" and "Thems", the podcast has also created the categories "T.H.A.M.P.S." for the pseudo-famous Trainers, Hairstylists, Agents, Makeup Artists, Publicists and Stylists, and "Nahs" for people that might be in the public eye, but are not famous enough to even be considered a Who. The duo continued releasing weekly newsletters as an accompaniment to the podcast episodes for paid supporters on Patreon. As of 2020, the newsletter has been replaced with Who? Daily, consisting of four mini-episodes a week with stories not covered in the main podcast episodes. Beginning in October 2017, there have been a series of live Who? Weekly shows across the United States.
Format and recurring segments
Episodes air biweekly and alternate between the main episode discussing topical celebrity news and "Who's There" episodes, which consist of responses to callers' questions and stories left on the podcast hotline.
Main episode
What's Rita Up To?
Main episodes always end on the segment What's Rita Up To?, featuring an update on the activities of singer Rita Ora. Ora is considered by the hosts to be the "original, OG Who" and the "Patron Who" for her ubiquitous appearances in tabloids and relative anonymity in the United States.
Last Weekly
An infrequent segment dependent on one of the hosts' access to Us Weekly. Last Weekly is a multiple choice guessing game in which on of the hosts needs to figure out the celebrity being profiled in one of the tabloid's segments.
I Don’t Know Her
Described as a "deranged version of six degrees of separation", the hosts speculate if a specific Them celebrity knows a specific Who celebrity.
A rapid-fire segment, in which each host has 30 seconds to explain a dark or disturbing piece of celebrity news and the other host responds with "yikes".
Benana
A limited segment that follows new couple Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas during their relationship in quarantine. Two major themes of the segment include Ben's Dunkin' order and whether the couple has masks on or not. The opening song is an original piece created by Bobby Finger for this segment.
Who's There
Who's There episodes were a later addition to the show, added after fans began contacting the hosts asking about the identity of various celebrities. The hosts consider the call-in show an integral part of the podcast as it opened up a dialogue between the hosts and their fan base and created a sense of community between the fans. Callers traditionally sign-off with in-jokes from earlier episodes, like, "good form, Bella Thorne", “me in Greece”, “ScarJo YummyPop”, “crunch crunch!” and "Women don't belong in balloons".
Generally, a weekly segment where the hosts answer, in unison, if the person called about is a Who or a Them.
Says Who?
Features guest hosts to discuss the Whos of their given field, for instance, in July 2019, political reporters Clare Malone and Clio Chang joined the hosts to discuss the Whos of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary.
Fanbase
Who? Weekly fans are collectively called Wholigans. The Wholigan Facebook group has 15,000 members and includes not only listeners but industry insiders who discuss celebrity sightings, news, rumors and deep dives. Notably, the search for "who-y" behavior has led the group to discover in 2017 that then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had an open account on mobile payment service Venmo. They began asking for payments as a form of trolling, causing some press attention. Celebrity callers to Who's There have included Lena Dunham, Lea DeLaria, and Richard Curtis.
Reception
's Brow Beat described Who? Weekly as "terrific" and said that the show "feels smart and fun because it’s sometimes messy, not in spite of its messiness". The podcast was chosen as one of the best podcasts of 2016 by The New York Times, who said that "the podcast feels delightfully absurd and truly vital in the Trump era", and by Vulture, who said it "has quickly become a cult hit". It has also been recommended by Nylon, Esquire, Marie Claire and Vogue.
