The satellite radio company that once seemed destined to live or die by Howard Stern has been steadily assembling a portfolio of podcast properties, and its latest acquisition comes from a talent pipeline that would have seemed improbable to the medium's founders: a drag queen competition series on Logo, later VH1, that became a cultural phenomenon.
SiriusXM announced on Tuesday that it had signed a three-year deal to exclusively distribute The Bald and the Beautiful, a comedy podcast hosted by Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, who first met as competitors on the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2015. The agreement gives SiriusXM Media, the company's advertising arm, exclusive sales rights for both audio and video versions of the show.
The podcast, which began in 2020 — a year when many performers suddenly found themselves with time on their hands and audiences suddenly found themselves seeking distraction — has accumulated nearly 100 million downloads, according to the company. Its YouTube channel has more than 770,000 subscribers.
"I can't believe it! I'm so grateful to be a Sirius girl now," Ms. Mattel said in a statement, adding, "Sirius just got a whole lot prettier ... you're all welcome." (One suspects the copy was not run through a corporate communications department.)
Ms. Zamolodchikova called the deal "surreal" and expressed gratitude for joining what she termed "the SiriusXM family," a phrase that has appeared in approximately every talent announcement since the company's founding.
The two hosts have maintained an unusually durable creative partnership since their competition days, collaborating on the web series UNHhhh, a Netflix series, and a best-selling advice book. Ms. Mattel, who won the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, also operates a cosmetics line and a Palm Springs motel that became the subject of a Discovery+ program.
Both performers are represented by UTA, which continues to find that reality television alumni require representation long after the reality ends.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "SiriusXM Signs Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova's 'The Bald and the Beautiful' Podcast (Exclusive)"