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Interview #2
Jordan and Tatiana on CBS
Star Search
USASN: What were
the CBS studios like?
J&T:
They were located in Hollywood, but they were not the main CBS Studios.
Mad TV was also filmed there. Our interview for the show was filmed in
the original stage of "I Love Lucy."
USASN:
Relate what happened when you first met the producers / staff:
J&T:
Many of them were from the production "30 Seconds to Fame," so we
already knew them well. I still cannot get over the fact that they
changed the rules of Star Search to have us on the show. We didn't
qualify because we had been on television in 2002 on "30 Seconds to
Fame." When they finally changed the rules, then they had to locate our
file, which had been put in with the 1000's of others that didn't make
the cut for whatever reason. It took a full day for them to locate our
information. Getting that call was really a thrill. We knew when we
filled out the original paperwork, that the odds were really against us
even appearing, so we feel very fortunate that we were able to have this
experience.
USASN:
What was the dressing room like?
J&T: It
was pretty basic. The best part was the door with your name on it.
USASN:
Tell us about your first meeting with Arsenio.
J&T:
Really a cool guy. He treated us like old friends and he always
remembered our names. One nice thing I remembered about Arsenio is that
during the rehearsals he would really pay attention to our performance,
where - with the others - he would sometimes walk backstage. He signed the
name card on the dressing room door for us to keep as a souvenir.
Unfortunately, because he was so busy, and so were we, we didn't have a
lot of time together. He seemed to like and respect our dance, and that
was great.
USASN: Any
special Arsenio happenings?
Tatiana:
One incident that happened between Arsenio Hall and I was when he was
trying to re-enact the ending of our routine and, by mistake, made it look
like he was "choking" me. So, during the commercial break, I had Arsenio
come over to me and I asked him what was he trying to do. He laughed
and said, "I wanted to do the 'neck move' that you and Jordan did and I
purposely messed up. That's what live television is all about!" So we
laughed together, and then it was time to start the show again. Arsenio would
also always tell us how much he loved our dance and the connection that
Jordan and I both had. He said this to us many times.
USASN:
What about activities with the other contestants?
J&T: We
hung out with Stephen (eventual winner of the Semi-finals) during the last week
quite a bit. He was a very nice guy who wanted to win so that he could just get a
car. That made us both feel he needed the win more then we did.
USASN:
Describe the studio (behind the stageset, size of performance area,
size of studio with stage and audience).
J&T:
The Studio seated 400 people. It had amazing lighting and the stage was
odd shaped. The audience was wrapped all around the stage. Backstage
was pretty tight with little rooms for us to watch the show as it was
being filmed.
USASN:
Describe your on-stage rehearsal sessions.
J&T:
When we would show them (CBS production staff) our new routine for the
first time, they would want pick at certain sections but could never
describe the move they wanted to work on. This meant that every time
they had a "new idea", we had to do the routine over again so they could
find the section. During one practice we ended up running through it 12 times
in a row! They would offer many ideas, as mentioned previously, and
some we used, and some we didn't. They really gave us the impression
they WANTED us to win.
USASN:
Describe the impact of the lights.
J&T: It
was a little disorienting, but what was more distracting was the large
teleprompter showing the score of the person that danced before you.
USASN:
Describe the impact of the cameras encircling you while performing.
J&T:
Actually, we were so focused on the dance that we were unaware of the
cameras. Plus, they were out in the audience and not really in our
faces. They never dropped down to eye level, so it wasn't a problem.
USASN:
Share some of your interactions with the Judges and Production Staff.
Jordan: I
felt I really had a "moment" with Naomi Judd before our first
performance on March 5th - our eyes met!
After the last show, one of the main guys
(director) there wanted to take us with him to the Miss USA television
show he was doing that same weekend (to perform). Everyone seemed
interested in our dance and hoped to see us again.
USASN:
Include any other comments about the "backstage" experience (meetings,
discussions with production staff, etc.).
J&T: We
stressed to them the importance of mentioning the TITLE of our dance,
since they left all of it out of the initial interview we gave. They
made sure that Arsenio Hall mentioned it when he introduced us on the
second show.
After we lost in the Semi-finals, they seemed more interested in how we
felt, what our feelings were, did we blame each other?, etc., than they
did in interviewing the winner. That seemed odd to me. We let them
know we were more than happy with each other's performance and felt
neither was to blame. We feel very grateful to Chris, Bob and Smitty
who worked countless hours finding and re-creating music for us.
Everyone treated us great and we have the highest respect for everyone
on the show.
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