Pop Cultured America

About half way through my one-man show, “Ryan O’Connor Eats His Feelings”, I have always sung a song by Katie Thompson called “America’s Queen”. The song was especially written for me to hopefully gain Oprah Winfrey’s attention and convince her to have me on the 25^th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. I first sang that song one year ago, February 5^th, at The Celebration Theatre.

One year later, I am writing a blog about my 4^th place finish on the reality TV competition “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”.

WHAT. A. YEAR.

May 14^th, 2010

Oprah Winfrey announces she will be producing a “search for the next talk show host”

June 1^st, 2010

I depart for the national tour of “Ryan O’Connor Eats His Feelings”

June 17^th, 2010 –

I shoot and submit my “audition video” for Your OWN Show in my hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona

July 1^st, 2010

While on tour in Nashville, Oprah’s childhood home, the producers of Your OWN Show call me to ask me some follow up questions and tell me they will get back to me if I’m still in the running.

July 6^th, 2010

In Chicago, less than 2 hours after visiting HARPO Studios for the first time ever, I get the call that I am one of the top 40 finalists for Your OWN Show and I have to fly back to LA immediately following my show at Davenport’s.

July 12^th – July 16^th, 2010

I attend a grueling “finals” week where I have 3 separate meeting with Mark Burnett and the executives of the show plus the executives of the OWN Network. Eventually, we are narrowed down to the final 20 and told we will receive a call “in a month or so” if we are chosen.

July 19^th, 2010 –

Close my national tour at Joe’s Pub in NYC and sing an encore of “A Quiet Thing” to an audience who doesn’t know that I am actually singing about something HUGE!

August 13^th, 2010 –

Scott Salyers, casting director for YOS calls and tells me I have been selected as one of the 10 contestants for “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star” . I scream, I cry, I call my mother, I call my boyfriend…..I start shopping and packing.

September 13^th, 2010, - We begin shooting “Your OWN Show” and, finally, after 25 years of anticipation, I meet Oprah Winfrey.

MEETING OPRAH WINFREY

There aren’t adequate words to describe the experience. They say never meet your heroes and I say, bullshit. If your hero is Oprah Winfrey, meet her… she’s fantastic. If you get a chance to WORK with her… even better. She is everything you need and more.

YOUR OWN SHOW

 Well, what can I say that hasn’t been shown? Plenty of things, haha, but I won’t. Upon leaving any reality competition, by law, one must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and exit interview. The therapist who works for Mark Burnett is phenomenal and she gave me really good advice. “Don’t try to explain this experience to anyone, they won’t get it. They can’t. It’s unreal”  I didn’t know at the time how valuable those words would come to be.

THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW  

That was the biggie for me. Doing the show, the reality competition, was wonderful and exciting and challenging, but The Oprah Winfrey Show was symbolic and empowering and THE REAL DEAL. It proved, ultimately, to me, that I can accomplish ANYTHING I set out to do. No dream is too big or impossible. So, now that I know that, what shall I dream up next?

MY FELLOW CONTESTANTS

 Only 10 of us will ever have this experience. Only 10 of us can say we were in People magazine with a headline that read “Oprah’s Chosen Ones”. Only 10 of us shared that moment when Oprah surprised us the first time. Because of that, we are all fellows. I have respect and admiration for every one of my fellow contestants and am proud of everything they did to get to the show and everything they will do after. TEREY. My hometown sister. I treasure you and will be in your life always. You are love and spirit and goodness and joy all wrapped up in one, ever shrinking package of deliciousness. KRISTINA. I’ll say it again, to watch you in a kitchen is to watch someone dance. You are a loving, nurturing, deeply feeling and truly gifted powerhouse of a mother and wife and friend and competitor. You made this show so fun. I will always remember the ladies room. AUNT FLORA. I love it when you call me papa bear. It makes my heart sing. Your talent and love and that dash of sass makes a perfect recipe. ALICIA. You are a force and a spirit that can’t be explained but experienced. As Carson said early on, we may not like each other, but we make a helluva team! All the best to you. May your hard work and determination get you everything you desire.  ELIZABETH. LA lady. Keep on keeping on and I will see you around town, I’m sure. TONY. I said it all before and it wasn’t well received, haha, but everyone knows that. I wish you peace. ERIC. I missed you so much when you left. You were such heart on Team Focus and I truly wish you had the opportunity to show America what you showed us, your PASSION for, not just food, life. I know you are gonna get that chance. See you at Rochester. LEIGH. Oh, if only we could have had more screen time together! The laughter that would have ensued! I love you; I love your family and that precious baby girl who needed you more than we did. Wow how life makes the big decisions for you. America will get you soon enough and they will realize you were, in fact, the one to beat. And last, but certainly not least, my boy ZACH. I think the thing I get most defensive about on the message boards, or in comments, are the things said about me in relation to you, Zach. Because, I truly believe that the time I spent working with you was truly the most incredible thing about this whole experience. Working with you felt, and feels, like working with an extension of myself. Who would have thought that two people of such VASTLY different life experiences could have a common voice? Move over Lucy and Ethel, here comes Zach and Ryan!

ELIMINATION

I was so nervous about my elimination episode. I was so worried that there was going to be some sort of surprise editing or forced justification of my departure but, in fact, the producers of Your OWN Show, being classy individuals, told the truth. Team Focus worked hard, leaned on Alicia’s strengths and did the best we could with what we were given. I was hard on Zach because I was honest. Zach agreed and I said nothing different about him than he said himself. I have enough respect for Zach, as he does for me, to point out when he could have done better. If telling the truth is throwing someone under the bus, I wanna be a bus driver, because I LOVE HONESTY! In the end, I took responsibility for my role as Executive Producer and Alicia took her responsibility for her role as host. I interviewed Suze Orman to the best of my ability and the judges, ultimately, made their decision based on those facts.

VIEWERS, FAMILY, FRIENDS & FANS

This is all you. You are the gas for this little engine that could. On some level, when I approached my interview with Suze, I KNEW I was on my way out. That’s why I sang the “Hello, everyone, hello” because I wanted you all their with me. You believed in me before I knew how to believe in myself. I can never repay that except to honor it by pushing even harder and further toward my dreams.

“America’s Queen’ has a new spin to it now, and I couldn’t love it or her more.

As I said in my exit from the show, my dream of being a talk show host doesn’t end here. It didn’t start here, so it can’t end here. It’s a marathon, not a sprint and, to quote Jay Z…. On to the next one.

Xoxoxo

Ryan

www.TheRyanOConnorShow.com