“I’m on Year 5 of people telling me, ‘Aren’t you going to run out of ideas? Your YouTube channel is eventually going to get stale.’ But if you’re constantly innovating, adapting and actually trying to push the boundaries, there are plenty of ways you can [do it].”
“We wrote it and didn’t have that much time to belabor each of the jokes. The whole tariff story changed at 4 p.m. It’s the chaos of the administration, and it keeps us on our toes. We’re in game shape.”
“It’s like the invisible work they put in to create that one fleeting moment of astonishment. To me, that’s the real magic, and that’s what I find beautiful. This was a search for that.”
Executive Producer/President American History Unbound Inc.
Patrick Hemingway Adams
Historical Consultant/
Special Guest
MODERATOR: Pete Hammond
“We twist it into a more emotional experience because you have a 60-piece orchestra running throughout the whole show. And then the National Archives is incredible. … So you add the photographs, you add the orchestra, you add the core of the story with people like Ernest Hemingway, and it becomes a pretty dramatic moment.”
“I think my ideas, as I’ve evolved, have become clearer, more concise, hopefully irrefutable. And I think it’s always about wanting to be heard and saying the things that I need to say in a digestible way.”
“I think what is exciting about the format is, we are really playing along in real time. The train leaves the station on Day 1, and we are literally throwing the tracks in front of the train.”
“After the shutdown of everything and no live music, I saw the element of this being a cathartic gathering where I saw audience members really engage and have this emotional response to the new music and also songs that they have loved for so long.”
“I think that being onDrag Race … is such a beautiful thing, especially right now in our current political climate where not just queer people are under attack, trans people are under attack, Latino people are under attack, Black people are under attack. We’re here in the front lines telling our stories.”
“There were times when I had to remind myself and even tell other people, ‘Look, take the moment in. It’s never going to happen again. I don’t want to be dramatic about it but this is something that will never happen again in the history of television.’ ”
“Is the burden real enough to stop him from progressing or is all of this stuff self-inflicted? And that’s what we investigate not only with him, but practically this is for every artist, myself included.”
“I think that’s the thing about this show [that] there’s such intricate planning that goes into all of this, and we’ve thought through every different scenario that could spread throughout it.”
“The win really is knowing that these artists are having these moments, and whether it’s the finale where they win and that’s attached to one of us, or it’s the knockouts and they don’t make it past that, but it’s an impactful moment on the show and for their career — that’s a win.”
