25 broadcast and dropped on YouTube that night without any pre-release promotion , the segment, titled “An Afternoon With Prince Harry & James Corden,” has been viewed more than 25 million times and praised by media insiders for humanizing the royal thanks to a candid conversation on a double-decker bus and bits like a stop at the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air house and a Spartan Race obstacle course challenge.
RuPaul asked Corden to open up on how he first met Prince Harry and Corden joked, “There was a certain time in London if you went out long enough and ended up drinking long enough, you’d probably bump into Prince Harry once in a while.” He got serious by saying that he’d “always been very, very fond of him” and even agreed to do a 10-minute performance at his wedding to Markle in 2018.
Winston, who also produced the recent Grammys telecast as well as the Friends reunion for HBO Max, praised Corden’s interview skills for making the sit-down such a success and for getting Prince Harry to open up in a way he might not have on another show.
They are always with managers, security, hair, makeup, assistants, all these things, and suddenly, it’s just me and them and some fixed cameras having a chat and singing the hits,” he said, adding that his philosophy behind having huge stars on the show is to keep the shine on them.
Speaking of rolling on, RuPaul asked the trio if the pandemic has changed the way they will produce the show from here on out.
Winston admitted that he thinks the first 15 minutes of the show now are better than the previous five years because they adapted to the pandemic, switched up the format and found surprising ways to be spontaneous and keep the audience entertained.