'Serial' is first-ever podcast to win Peabody award; creator Sarah Koenig makes Time's 100 most influential people list [Updated]

'Serial," the 12-part podcast about a 1999 murder in Baltimore, has won a major award.

And its creator, the former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, separately was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people for 2014.

"Serial' was among the recipients announced on Monday of the prestigious George Foster Peabody awards in the category of "News and Radio/Podcasts."

The podcast was the "first of its kind" to receive the award, according to an announcement from the Peabody Awards, which is administered by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The awards, announced on Thursday, are not in categories, and there is not set number of awards given each year. Among the other winners of the 74th awards were CNN, NPR and NBC.

The full list of news winners, along with the previously announced winners of Peabody's entertainment awards, are here.

The Time list was released Thursday. The Scottish actor Ewan McGregor wrote that he'd rush home at the end of the day, turn off the phones and dim the lights so he wouldn't interrupted for the 40 to 50 minutes it took each broadcast to air.

"To say it was addictive is an understatement," he wrote in Time.

"Suddenly, investigative journalism became our hobby, our passion. People were talking about it everywhere you went. It was a true cultural phenomenon, and radio was once again front and center in our daily lives."