Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time Period

Co-hosts Avery and Bell first met as stand-up comics in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Avery would later serve as the head writer for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.[5][6] They had frequently connected over their shared fandom of Denzel Washington films, which led to the concept of the podcast being created when both comedians were searching for new projects after the cancelation of Totally Biased.[7]

Bell explained the motivation for creating the podcast as follows:

I think the great thing about this podcast is, even if people don't think he's the greatest actor of all time—first of all, they'd be wrong—you'd totally get why somebody would be excited about Denzel Washington. He's like black Santa Claus, like he'd walk into the room and everybody gets excited. He's just one of those dudes. There are other actors like that, but I think as a black actor, it says something more about him and his place in history. And, also, he's very aware of his place in history. So, I think that's the other thing, too. He's an actor who's aware that he's a part of the history of black Hollywood, and he has to take care of his place, because who knows who's coming after him?

— "W. Kamau Bell on Baltimore, Ferguson, and Why Denzel Washington Is the Greatest", Esquire, April 30, 2015[7]

The first episode of the show was released on November 2, 2014, and new episodes are generally released on Thursdays.[8] The initial goal was to review Washington's films in mostly alphabetical order, although in practice guest hosts and topical conversations have resulted in that order being changed many times.[9]

Beyond focusing on Washington's career alone, the podcast has also expanded to include discussions on the role of black actors and filmmakers in Hollywood and in media in general. Bell explained in an interview how the premise of the show connects with this added focus: "There's stuff about how hard it is to be a working black actress in Hollywood, because you see [Denzel] and where are all these black actresses that you see in one movie? Why aren't they working more? So we end up bleeding into other issues."[5]

Fans of the podcast are known as "Denzealots", and several have appeared as guest hosts or interviewees on the show. The Denzealots.com webpage and Twitter account are both created and maintained by fans (Igor Rusinov and Liz respectively, who have both been interviewed on the show).[37][38] Fans also regularly participate in conversation with Bell, Avery, and each other on [Twitter]], and create various memes associated with jokes and themes from the show.[39]

Merchandise for the show includes a T-shirt featuring the show's acronym (DWITGAOATP),[2] and one featuring the terms from the 1 to 6 rating system.[40]

The podcast debuted at #81 on the iTunes US podcast charts, and reached #57 the subsequent week.[41] In November 2015, it was selected as one of "Ten Podcasts Every Black Woman Should Hear" by Essence magazine.[42] It was also selected as a "must-listen" podcast by The Offing magazine.[43]

The A.V. Club's recurring Podmass feature has highlighted the show five times in its best-podcasts-of-the-week column between 2014 and 2016, for episodes featuring a review of A Soldier's Story,[44] an interview with David Alan Grier about A Soldier's Play,[45] a review of Mo' Better Blues with guest Ava DuVernay,[46] a two-part interview with Spike Lee,[47] and a discussion of an article on "The Black Film Canon" with Slate writers Aisha Harris and Dan Kois.[47]

Bell and Avery were highlighted in a list of innovative podcasters by Fast Company in February 2015.[48]

• Official website