Zooey Deschanel reveals being paired up with Jonathan Scott for 'Carpool Karaoke' 'wasn't random'

Zooey Deschanel says she only wanted to do "Carpool Karaoke" if it worked with her schedule and if it was with someone who made sense. Jonathan Scott fit the bill.

The two filmed their episode for the Apple TV+ show during the summer of 2019 with their siblings, Emily Deschanel and Drew Scott. The pair, after meeting on set, entered into a relationship that fall and have been going strong ever since.

The "New Girl" alum said in a recent interview with "Entertainment Tonight" that the quartet coming together on the show was intentional.

“It wasn’t random,” she said. “They had come to me a bunch of times with different people. Some of them I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea,’ but I couldn’t do it and then some of them I’m like, ‘I don’t know if that makes sense to me.’ When they said the Property Brothers and the Deschanel sisters, I was like, ‘That’s funny. I like the idea.’"

Deschanel expected it to just be another work obligation, she described.

"I wasn’t thinking I’d find romance, but I thought we’d find a fun afternoon," she said.

Yes, well, that's how it can start. She said the beauty of first meeting on set means their entire encounter is on tape.

"This was, like, my meet-cute with Jonathan, my boyfriend," Deschanel said as she watched a clip of their episode. "It’s so sweet to see this. How many people can say they have them meeting their partner — the whole first meeting on video? I don’t think that many people can say that — with our siblings present. Not many people!”

She said their episode became a credit she's known for.

“It’s defined me,” she said, later adding with a laugh, “It was the best publicity — the best publicity that I’ve ever done, I guess.”

Scott said on his brother's podcast in 2020 that he purposely flirted with the singer as they filmed the episode.

“I thought I was playing it cool," he said. "I didn’t think anything of it. The producer said I was flirting so bad, so hard, they had to cut a bunch of that out,” he said.

“You were very gentlemanly!” Deschanel replied, later acknowledging she was flirting, too.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com