Meghan Markle's hit solo podcast Archetypes has landed a "major win" by being nominated in the "Pop Podcast of 2022" category of the People's Choice Awards, an entertainment expert has told Newsweek.
The duchess' 12-episode podcast series launched in August to examine and discuss the labels applied to women in society that can often hold them back.
Archetypes sits in the podcasting categories of society and culture, and has been produced in collaboration with Spotify. Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, signed a multi-million-dollar content creation deal with the streaming giant in 2020 after stepping down as working royals and moving to the U.S.
The duchess faces tough competition in the People's Choice podcasting category with nominations also going to shows including Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain, Why Won't You Date Me? With Nicole Byer and Call Her Daddy.
Another hit podcast to be nominated is Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, on which Prince Harry made a guest appearance in 2021.
The nomination signals a clear boost for the duchess and her media projects, Mark Boardman, an entertainment expert and the CEO of MarkMeets, told Newsweek.
"Meghan Markle has some great news to celebrate having been nominated for a People's Choice Award," he said.
"Archetypes opens up a whole range of taboo subjects in an open, thoughtful and clever way of being able to air some of her innermost feelings in a whole new way with ever growing listener numbers. It must be like therapy with the positive feedback from her friends, fans and the press."
Despite this, he concedes that the nomination by no means signals a clear win for the royal, who faces stiff competition.
"Due to the popularity of other nominations in the category it will likely mean Meghan Markle not taking home the award," he explained.
"Meghan's fellow nominees have better engagement levels with the public and other platforms, though just being nominated is already a major win, as her goal was to highlight the labels that try to hold women back."
The public are able to vote for the People's Choice Awards until November 9. The winners will be announced in a star-studded ceremony on December 6.
