A moment with Adam Conover: Exclusive interview
By Callum Gunn
A moment discussing with Adam Conover about the latest season, the most shocking moments, what is coming next and a request for David Attenborough’s number.
Ahead of the season finale of Adam Ruins Everything Presents Animated History, Hidden Remote had the wonderful opportunity of asking presenter Adam Conover about the current season, what lies ahead, and much more.
In Adam Ruins Everything, host and comedian Adam Conover embarks on a comically inventive yet unrelentingly serious quest to reveal the hidden truths behind everything you know and love. The finale, which airs on Tuesday, April 24 10 PM ET/PT on truTV, will be looking at how food regulations were implanted and a particular group called the “The Poison Squad.”
A book on the very first season of the truTV series, “Adam Ruins Everything,” is also out in bookstores. You can recap on all the episode from the very first seasons and remind yourself of the topics Adam ruined, such as the workplace itself, voting, forensic science and security in the usual fun and exciting way that we have all come to enjoy.
Hidden Remote: Adam Ruins Everything has gone animated. The show had some animated sketches in the past but this is different. How did that come about? What made you decide to switch things up and go full animation?
Adam Conover: Last year we did our first all-animated episode. The network liked it so much, they asked us to do six more! We decided to focus them on history stories because the medium of animation allows us to travel through time in a way that’s a lot harder in live-action — all those period costumes get expensive! Much easier to draw them. Plus, we’re all huge fans of animation at the show.
HR: What was it like filming animated episodes? Was it a difficult transition or did you find it relatively easily with doing the odd animated sketch in the past?
Conover: Well, you don’t film animated episodes — you write them, then you draw them, then you animate them! It’s a totally different production pipeline and workflow, which took some getting used to, of course. But our friends at the animation studio Stoopid Buddy (they’re the folks who do Robot Chicken and other great shows) made it easy for us, and our incredible director Juston Gordon-Montgomery made everything look fantastic.
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HR: The show is all about taking things that we think we know and showing us that we really don’t and you do it in a very comedic way. When it comes to all the fact-checking, how much research do you all go into? Are you all just scouring the internet high and low or do you have a much more intense process? Do you yourself get involved in the research?
Conover: We have a very intense research process; research is the core of our show. Every episode we do has a dedicated researcher who partners with the episode’s writer to find the most interesting stories and to fact-check all the information in every script. While they may start with the internet to take their first steps researching a topic, they quickly move onto scholarly journal articles, books, and other published material.
HR: Is there any particular reason why you choose the topics you do for each episode? As in do you have a set list of topics to go by? Or does it depend on the current topics of conversation around the world?
Conover: Our writer’s room chooses the topics collaboratively; we simply do the topics that we’re the most interested in. Our benchmark is, if it’s a fact that blows OUR minds, we can be pretty sure it’ll blow the audience’s too!
HR: Has there been any topics that you planned, and possibly even started, for an episode of Adam Ruins Everything and had to shelve for one reason or another?
Conover: We have only held back on certain topics because we wanted to make sure we did them right; on occasion, a topic will be so complex that we’ll put it on the back burner and return to it in a later season once we’ve had more time to think about it. But we always get to it eventually!
HR: Do you have a particular fact that you found very surprising and shocking when you first learned of it?
Conover: I quite genuinely did not know the truth about the female hymen until it was brought up by one of the writers in our writer’s room.
HR: Are there any topics you are hoping to do one day?
Conover: Every topic we do on the show is one that I, at one point, hoped we could do one day. My job is to turn that hope into an episode of television. So the answer to your question is yes.
HR: Can you tell me anything about what we can possibly expect in the future from Adam Ruins Everything?
Conover: More episodes!
HR: And lastly, would you ever like to do a crossover style episode with someone? For example, Animal Planet or Blue Planet. The presenter could be halfway through describing a particular animal and then you appear with your famous catchphrase; “Actually!”
Conover: That’s a great pitch! Do you have David Attenborough’s number?
Don’t forget to catch the season finale of Adam Ruins Everything Presents Animated History, Tuesday, April 24 at 10 PM ET/PT on truTV.