February 28, 2023 • 53 mins
Chris is joined by Jenny McCarthy to give us a sneak preview of the new FOX dating show FARMER WANTS A WIFE. What does Chris think of these "BACHELOR" style dating shows now? Chris is now watching the competition to his old show. How does that feel?
Plus, Chris tells Jenny something about The Masked Singer even she doesn't know!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the most dramatic podcast ever and I heart
radio podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome to the most dramatic
podcast ever. I am Chris Harrison, join once again by
the lovely Laurenzima, who is back with this this week.
Tan rested and ready to keel it up after a
(00:21):
girl's trip. Wow, maybe too much tequila. I mean, when
you're drinking every day, you got to stop it at
some point. At some point when you're on vacation, you're
thinking I need a vacation from Yes, my liver needs
a spa. Yes, But I'm glad you're home. I'm glad
you're back. By the way, thank you for giving me
a mention while I was gone. I loved what you
(00:41):
said about how we take time to do things that
are important to each of us, to have girls trips,
have guys trips, and I like missing you. It's nice
to miss you. It was one of the things that
I loved quickly about you is that your friends are
dear to you. You make them a priority along with
your family, and that was clear that, Hey, you still
(01:02):
need to keep your life. I'm going to keep mine.
They will blend clearly, and that's one of the beautiful
things about a relationship, but we also got to keep
our separate lives going for our individuality but also to
feed our soul in those ways. And I love that.
It's an important balance to find because I do think
people sometimes you walk that dangerous line of thinking opposites
(01:23):
attract and then you wind up with somebody who you
have nothing in common with, Like you have to like
to do the same things, but at the same time,
you have to have your own things, because it's exciting
to tell somebody about your day and to show them
something you love and teach them about it. And in
this case, I loved tequila and girlfriends. But anyway, we
also talk about I could go on a rant about this,
but you know what we talk about a lot is
(01:44):
the difference between a girl's trip and a guy's trip.
Like I always say, when me and my girlfriends go
on a trip, the activity is talking, right. We are
talking the whole time. We are diving in like how
is your marriage, what's going on with you? We get deep,
we probably cry at some point, and then when you
come back from like a guy's golf, Guys base their
trips on an activity, right, So our activity is we're
(02:08):
going hunting, we're going fishing, we're going golfing. So we
have an activity and around that there might be some
talk possibly that goes deep. But we have an activity,
whereas your activity is we're going to be together and
just talk. Well, we could really dig into all this.
It might be a whole episode on its side. Do
(02:28):
this someday because it is fascinating and how women talk
and will actually well, I don't want to go too far,
but we will get into this someday. I think sleeping
arrangements are very interesting to me, and that I don't
want to scratch the surface, because once we get going,
we will dive into this rabbit hole. It is award season, Elsie.
You are obviously deep into this world, having worked at
(02:50):
entertainment tonight for the better part of a decade. Well
you are too, mister. You did money Red Carpets for
Team I did actually a little known fact because very
little of you watched this, but I was on the
Red carpet for TV Guide. I executive produced and hosted
the Red Carpet for TV Guide for many years. So
obviously did the Globes, the SAG Awards, which were last night.
The Grammys and the Oscars. Those are the big four
(03:12):
of the redheaded step children. The SAG Awards are kind
of the lesser known, lesser talked about publicly but privately
within Hollywood. It is a very time honored tradition because
it's so personal. It is the Screen Actors Guild. Well,
what's interesting is a lot of people are saying that
this awards show last night was just a really good show,
(03:32):
like that the speeches were fun, that it was just
enjoyable to watch. I mean, of course, we get into
the most dramatic headlines every week, and what's more dramatic
than a bunch of actors in a room together. But
you and I wanted to talk about it because it's
interesting too, Like one, you know, we talk about both
being in TV, not just the content itself, but how
(03:54):
people receive it. And we were wondering how many people
were going to watch these SAG Awards because it was
live streamed on Netflix's YouTube channel. I went and checked
it had almost a million views as of Monday morning.
What do you think, mister ratings guy? You always follow
the ratings. You follow TV ratings for a long time.
I mean, look, I know a certain show that doesn't
(04:17):
get three million viewers. So for something online to get
a million viewers, and that's really kind of where the
standard is now. So it's interesting to me that they
have leaned into and you said they're going to come
on Netflix next year, on lave next year, it's going
to be live streamed on Netflix's main I mean, not
just on Netflix. It's look, we've both seen this business
go through so much change over the past couple of years.
(04:40):
I mean, I don't think people don't awards shows like
the Oscars the Emmys, even though you have the biggest
stars in the world. I don't think they're going to
ever get the numbers they once did, but people do
still talk about it online. I mean, it kind of
sucks for the broadcast networks because people don't watch the
main show and that's where they get their advertising dollars.
But and I'll be as we're about to sit here
(05:00):
and talk about it, you and I did not watch
the SAG Awards. We're just looking at the clips this moment. Ironically,
I was on Netflix. I was watching the new season
of Drive to Survive, which I'm addicted to, which is phenomenal,
and I'm not even a car guy. I just love
the soap opera storylines of it. I think it's a
great reality show. But yeah, I was on Netflix but
not watching the SAG Awards. Yes, and look to your
(05:21):
point is it's not a novelty anymore to see the
big stars. When I was growing up, and it's not
that long ago, the only time you could see big
stars Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, whatever was if
you tuned in to the Red Carpet, if you tuned
into the Big Show. Now, it was the only opportunity
to see them in kind of a natural moment. I mean,
(05:42):
interviews aren't the most natural, but an interview, yes, at
the time it was novel, and now it's not even
noiving a speech because of social media, because of you know,
just just this saturation of ways that we can get
to these celebrities. There are very few that have kept
their distance. I mean, you don't hear a lot of
Tom Hanks, But even a guy like Tom Hanks, I've
(06:04):
seen him. I've seen him on the round table, I've
seen him doing certain things now where I just see
him more so if I see him on the Red Carpet,
it's not like, oh my gosh, I haven't. I haven't
seen this guy speak outside of this movie in a year.
And even Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise was on Netflix's special
last night. He was on Drive to Survive. When else
(06:24):
would you ever see Tom Cruise? A guy like Tom Cruise?
But he was in the pits of the Mercedes drivers
last night. He was not at the Sagoars. He was not.
I don't know if he was nominated. Actually, if not,
he should have been for Top Gun. Was he? I
don't think he was nominated Top Guns should have been nominated.
I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to look this up
really quick. But anyway, so people don't watch it as much,
(06:46):
but the little, you know, speeches still go viral. We
still talk about the red carpet looks. By the way,
shout out to my personal faves. I don't know if
he looked up the looks, but Zendea, Quinta Brunson, Haley
Lou Richardson from The White Lotus looked at me saying
given a shout out to a couple of guys. Austin
Butler rock in a great suit and Eddie Redmain had
(07:06):
like a big bow tie situation and I enjoyed it.
So there were some good looks. Zendan Quinton Brunson just
never missed. What were there two of my favorites? What
were the big storylines? Because you know from the Golden
Globes we kind of got a hint of things. But
now when you get to the SAG Awards, you get
those through lines from award show to award theme. Yes,
(07:27):
at which I do love. There tends to be a
theme that comes out of an award season because the
same movies are nominated in each show, and so you
kind of see the same people and you get these stories.
And the one that I am loving this year is
actually across a couple of different properties, and you got
to see it at SAG because they award TV and film, right,
But is this theme of a second chance later in life?
(07:51):
We saw Brendan Fraser when Last Night for the Whale
and you know, Star of the Mummy, Star of School
Ties and all these movies when he was like young
and mussle and then we didn't see him for a
long time and now he's come back in the Renaissance
and he spoke in his speech he won about the
courage to hold on and to keep going and to
put one foot in front of the other and that
things will happen. And then Kihui Kwan, who we all
(08:14):
know from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He
was a child star, he was in the goonies, and
then he basically said there were not, unfortunately terribly opportunities
for him as an Asian actor in Hollywood, so he
disappeared for decades, and now decades later he's back winning
as a first the first time ever an Asian actor
has won in Best Supporting for Everything, everywhere, all at once,
(08:37):
and he gosh, I mean, he's tearing up in his
speech talking about again how he got this chance and
he didn't think it would happen for him. And then
Jennifer Coolidge wins for the White Lotus cracks everybody up.
And she's a woman who is the hottie Stiffler's mom
in American Pie. She's been legally ever disappoints in her speeches. No,
I mean from every speech I've heard, I hang on
(08:59):
every word is. I never know what's coming out of
her mouth next. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sentimental. I
love her speeches. She's She's been a great breath of
fresh air this awards. But listen to what you just said.
I love that, a breath of fresh air, fresh air
from someone who is I think Jennifer Cooldge is in
her sixties and she's talking about how she's getting this
(09:21):
second chance. And by the way, as we all know
in Hollywood, opportunities for women tend to get less as
they get older. Yeah. So it's just been this beautiful,
like inspiring thing of it doesn't have to be over.
And I love that because I mean, I always try
to tell myself, I can't wait to see what's next.
(09:41):
The best is yet to come, and what you know, well,
let's let's be real, Chris Harrison, you're seventeen years older
than me, is the best? What's yet to go? I'm excited.
It's funny. I just texted this to my daughter this morning,
that when you wake up and life gives you a
clean slate, I find that an excite time. She just
(10:01):
went through something where she has a clean slate in life.
So did I emotionally when you and I went through
what we went through, and while it sucked, and I
would not wish that on anybody, and I didn't want
to go through that that way. I relish a clean
slate in life and sticking with your passion, sticking with
what you love and going for that is I think
(10:25):
extraordinary and it takes a lot there. I was watching
golf yesterday. There's this thirty seven year old man, Chris Kirk,
who won for the first time in eight years. He's
thirty seven. That's really getting old as far as professional golfers.
On the PGA tour. You're kind of hoping to get
to fifty to get to that senior tour. And he's
not a big star, And so what is it within
(10:45):
certain people that they will just continue to grind and
go with this passion. I feel excited about a clean slate.
And I don't know if Jennifer Coolidge felt like that
that way, because she's been, you know, staying in this business.
But I just find it interesting. I think we view light.
We all view life is very linear, right, which makes
(11:06):
sense because it's time and it happens linearly as we
see it every day. But your career, you know, I
don't know. I grew up thinking and my parents weren't
wrong for this, but like work hard and do well
and work your way up in your industry. But acting,
especially the business weren't in, is so not linear. Like
you can have zero opportunities and then all of a
(11:26):
sudden everything can change, or you can be like a
child star and then the opportunities fade away. So it's
not linear. And I think they're showing like this award
season is showing a change in Hollywood, like a celebration
that you can be older and still be doing exciting
new things. And I love that because gosh, if we're
(11:47):
not like continuing to grow and evolve as people and
get better and experience more and learn, than what else
are we doing? You know? Life is like the stock market.
It's like it's a roller coaster ride. It's not this
slow ascension straight up. There are severe ups and downs.
You did tell me the other day, you said that
you texted your dad that you were really happy right now.
(12:07):
I did, ye. I am as happy as I have
ever been in life. Love professionally. I love having this podcast.
I love having this platform. I love doing it with you.
I love that a woman stopped me in the gym
this morning and said, Chris, I'm listening to your podcast.
I love hearing from you. I love hearing from Lauren
and so I love the impact this is head. So
(12:27):
I love where we are right now. Yeah, and this
too shall pass and change yes and on to the next. Oh.
I saw this great quote from Tom Hanks. Let's circle
back too on that panel. Yes, And he said that
this thing that sticks with him is this too shall
pass in both ways, like, this too shall pass. If
you're going through a tough time, at shall pass. And
if you're going through a good time, that will pass too.
(12:48):
So enjoy the moments and appreciate where you're at. Yeah,
when the critics are crushing you, this too shall pass.
But he said, when you win an oscar, this too
shall pass. Yes. Very interesting. One bone to pick with
the SAG Awards. I've always had this issue with the SAgs,
which I have covered. I've been on the red carpet.
Here comes the drama. I'm a member of SAG. Are
you you are too? So where do you think I'm
(13:11):
getting my health insurance? We are both SAG after members.
I have been a SAG member for many years. They
never recognize reality TV shows. The SAgs represent and celebrate
TV and film, and they've just never given into the
reality World. And I remember back in the early two
thousands when we were really crushing it, Idol was crushing it,
(13:35):
some of these other shows were really picking up steam,
and I thought they were going to give in like
the Emmys did, and they just never have relented in
that way. So there's no reality TV categories. None. None.
That's such a good point, because yeah, it's SAG AFTRA,
I mean, which they combined years ago to include like
radio televisions. Well, I promise Ryan Seacrest Bergier on me, felk.
(13:57):
I mean, we're all SAG members. You have to be
by the way, because shows, I mean to explain it,
the way shows work is their union shows. So you
have to be a union member in order to work
on these shows. And you're right, there's no reality TV
kind of that's my only bone to pick, and I
think that is obviously it's it's something a part of
the industry that was we were the call girl, oh
(14:19):
if you will of the business. Sure, people love to
sleep with us, but no one wanted to talk to
us in the morning. They didn't want to bring you
out to dinner, they didn't want to take us out
in public. That's how people looked at reality TV. I'll
never forget the way the president of ABC spoke of
The Bachelor in those early days. It was like almost apologetic,
And now everybody's kind of leaned into it, and even
(14:40):
some of the biggest stars in our business are doing
reality shows. So I'm kind of shocked that the SAgs
have just never gone that direction. Well, we have talked
before too about I mean, I'm looking up at at
our mantle right now. You have an Emmy nomination for
when you hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But
I when I was covering the show, always had a
bone to pick with the Emmys about the fact that
(15:01):
The Bachelor, you guys never won, were you ever even nominated,
never nominated for anything in any category, which is nuts.
You're the number one reality TV show, the work the
crew did, the production value of The Bachelor, it is
nuts that it was never nominated. It takes a big campaign.
We never leaned into the campaign of it all. I mean, look,
the politics of it is this, and I'm surprised we
(15:23):
didn't at least get nominated. I agree with that, but
if the people this is hard politically to say. If
the person that's running the show is not very popular
in this business, You're not going to get the votes.
You're talking you're talking about saying body. I'm just saying anybody,
any show, if the person running it, the person that
(15:43):
created it, is not a popular person and somewhat disliked
in this business, you're not going to get the votes.
Bruckheimer did amazing Race. They won at nauseum, to the
point where I was there one year and people were
kind laughing because American Idol was the Michael Jordan of
reality TV for a while. It should have just won
(16:04):
every year. It was just, yeah, it changed television. It
changed all kinds of things about our business. And it
you know, it wasn't winning year in a year out.
It was amazing Race, not that amazing Race. Wasn't a
beautiful show and shot well and all that. But I
was disappointed that we didn't win for direction art, you know,
even some of just the peripheral awards. But yeah, No,
(16:25):
Bachelor was just completely ignored during awards season, and they
leaned into it for a while. All of a sudden,
warners like, oh, we're gonna try and win an Emmy.
I'm like, no, we're not. Like if if you didn't
win By. Now, if you weren't recognized by now, clearly
you're not liked, you're not going to be nominated. Well
it's you and Tom Cruise. I'm just confirming here in
the SAG list. Okay, top Gun Maverick was nominated for
(16:47):
stunt on Somble in a Motion Picture. I remember. It's only,
of course, like performance nominations for the SAG Awards, it's
about acting that stunt. What was that category, stunt onsemble.
I didn't even know stunt onsemble was a thing, but
that when top Gun Maverick did not get an ensemble
nomination overall, wow, um, Tom Cruise not nominated. It's it's
(17:10):
always interesting to me awards shows struggle to acknowledge the
biggest movies there are. They don't. That's why the Golden
Globes got it right. It's a cocktail party and we
don't care. The foreign press Hollywood forign press is like,
we don't care. We're just we're going to bring the
biggest stars in the world, whatever movie they were in,
we want them on the red carpet. Well, there was
a lot they got wrong, so a lot they need
to work on, but they got the big movie thing. Right.
(17:31):
But one of the things that the SAG's got wrong
is not representing reality shows. Speaking of reality shows, there
is a new one on the horizon. It is out.
(17:52):
It's on Fox. It is called Farmer Wants a Wife.
You have worn a plaid shirt for it here. I
have warned plaid shirt to look like a farmer. And
we are authentic because we're shooting this in Austin, Texas.
We moved here just for this. No, So I watched
Farmer Once a Wife. We watched it separately, actually to
(18:13):
get because we didn't run to watch it together so
we could get our thoughts on this. It immediately gave
me Chris Souls vibes right back. Took me back to
the day with Farmer Chris Souls who lived in Iowa.
Farmer and I went to his house. We shot there.
We were in Iowa, and the closest town, my hotel,
(18:34):
was a good hour away from his house. And that
was a small town. So the closest he's coming to
a Starbucks, a good bar, a restaurant. It's an hour away.
So I get this life of farmer needs a wife
because farmer ain't meeting anybody unless it has four legs
(18:54):
and some hoofs. So it is difficult, I get it.
So but it took me back to that show, which
I loved. I loved doing that with christ Souls Farmer
Once a Wife. We sat down, we watched it. It
instantly gave me the Bachelor meets Yellowstone vibes, but with
four bachelors. And you're right, I thought of Christuls too,
because it made me realize how real his struggle was.
(19:17):
These guys, these four guys on Farmer Once a Wife,
they're kind of farmers, ranchers. I don't know the difference between,
like they have cattle, I don't know. But they are
living in the middle of nowhere. One guy says his
closest neighbor is two miles away. I'm telling you that's
I went to Chris's house. It's that's legit. And and
by the way, it's not even getting on a road.
You're getting on a dirt road then to get to
(19:40):
someone else's right. So I have to give this show
credit on that. I believe it was something I did
struggle with when covering Bachelor Bachelorette, was believing the reality
that these people were actually struggling to find love, like
I'll never forget sitting interviewing. I used to interview the
leads on their first photoshoots, so before filming had started.
(20:01):
They're taking their promo photos as the Bachelor Bachelorette, and
I'm sitting there with the wonderful Jojoe Fletcher, who we love.
But at the time I had to say to her,
I'm just meeting her, and I said, I gotta ask you.
You know you're I think she was twenty four. You're
twenty four, gorgeous, You've barely gotten out of college. You're beautiful,
you're fun, you're kind, You're really struggling to find a date.
(20:23):
This is you're really struggling to find the one. I
mean at twenty four, you've barely You're not even like
you've barely been looking for the one yet you haven't
even put in that much time. So that was something
I struggled with believing on the show. Jordan Rodgers would argue, yes,
but with these guys, I mean also, there are four
guys all in their thirties, Hunter, Alan, Ryan, and Landon.
Those are your four farmers. And the way this is
(20:44):
set up, they've they've already done at This is interesting
because getting into these shows is always the difficult part
as a producer, And so what I liked is they've
done some some leg work already. They've shown these guys
some films, some tapes, some pictures, what have you. They
narrow it down to eight, So we start with eight,
then they narrow it down to five that first episode,
(21:06):
and those five are immediately moving in with these farmers,
not to the glorious mansion you know in quote unquote Malibu,
you're moving on to their farm immediately. They're going straight
to hometowns. Yes, so they basically kind of did interviews
on paper and then narrowed it down. You do not
pass goo, you do not get an overnight fantasy suite,
(21:27):
and you're not get a balloon ride or a nice beach.
You're going straight to the farm. Straight to that. Honestly,
I mean they are literally shoveling, Yes, and we're probably
going to bleep out me saying that, but I don't
know how manure they're They're shoveling manure metaphorically and literally
right away. You rarely ever cuss. It's kind of sexy
when you do. Wow, Well, we're gonna take a time
(21:53):
out and come benou so well, yeah, and they get
right into it. And also, like I said, these guys
are all in their thirties, so I really the believability
factor on this show for me was pretty high in
terms of I felt like this is real. These guys
really have not been able to find someone. Also, all
the contestants were a little bit older. Which look, I'm
(22:16):
not saying, of course, in your twenties you deserve to
find love and you should be looking for it. But
if we're talking about if we're basing this around the
narrative of I haven't been able to find love, I
find it more believable with people who are a bit older,
because I think you've literally spent the time searching. Well,
I've done. I did little research on this show. I
wasn't aware it's already in thirty five countries Farmer once
a Wife. Yes, it's already around the world, and so
(22:38):
it's sometimes a concept will either be created in America
taken around the world, like the Bachelor Bacherette. But sometimes
we get a foreign concept and international concept and bring
it to America. And so this has worked around the
world and now oddly it's just coming to America. You
would think a show like this would have started here
because we're you know, we're so into the heartland. It
(23:00):
always brings up that interesting fish out of water scenario
in dating, where you're you have the country boys and
then you have these women from La New York, you know,
cosmopolitan in their high heels, their beautiful white tennis shoes,
walking through the muck and the mud. And it brings
up an interesting point in relationships, is it? And do
(23:23):
you believe in birds of a feather stick together or
do you believe in opposite attract? Oh, we were just
talking about earlier. Yes, um, are you asking me? Yeah?
I mean, and I think I think maybe both are
applicable at times. Well, I think that you have to
find someone who challenges you, like someone who maybe and
(23:45):
maybe balances you out, has qualities other like you are
much calmer than I am, so I'm less dramatic, which
is great for us. But you know, I think, as
I said before, I think it's about finding someone who
likes to do the same things. Maybe your personalities balance
each other out, but you have to be in common
(24:06):
and how you like to live on, what you want
to get out of life, how you want to live
your life, like that's the big question for these people.
Do you want to really come live on a farm? Right?
And do you really want to be shoveling the ship
every day? Because this is real and I love that
they dropped them right in the middle of it. I
also kind of you know, another criticism of people on
reality dating shows has been are they just in it
for the fame? But these guys, I'm like, yeah, there's
(24:28):
no fame here and these are their real jobs. I mean,
one guy's like, I am a fourth generation farmer. This
is my family's farm. I was thinking. No part of
me was thinking, oh, these guys are just trying to
move to LA and get a career as an influencer.
Like I believe that this is what they're really doing.
There was one thing that stood out to me because
I felt like it was standing out to you, Oh
(24:50):
you're watching it, thinking of how I was watching. Yeah,
can you think of what that was that stood out
to me? Where I'm like, oh, she's she's gonna talk
about Oh it's a little but I wrote it down
to the stupid saying red, next thing say stupid, But
I didn't understand them. I think one guy said, did
you write it down. What were they What did they say? So?
One farmer said, Ashley's just cuter than a speckled pup
(25:16):
sleeping under the shade of a wagon wheel. Okay, now
say it is if you would actually say it, Ashes
just cut and a speckled pup sleeping under the shade
of a wagon wheel. This is when you're born in Dallas, Texas.
Side comes out. Chris will say things, you guys, and
I don't know what they mean. The one that gets
me every time is you will say, is if, like,
(25:38):
in all seriousness, I'm so hungry I could eat the
crotch out of a loafly and duck. I do say
that from time to time. What does that mean? I
don't Honestly, I don't know, and I don't know where
it came from. They were just sayings in my family. Um, yeah,
crotch happier in clam. There was another saying that I
(25:59):
have used before. He got it slightly wrong on the show.
More nervous than a cat and a roomfull of rocking chairs.
It is a I think the correct redneck saying is
more nervous than a long tailed cat and a room
full of rocking chairs. But that was Also, I just knew.
I knew that was going to stand out to you,
those redneck sayings. I didn't even know a long tailed
cat was a real thing. Farmer wants a wife. Yes,
(26:21):
I look it again, it felt very real to me.
I'll be interested to see what happens. The question also
for these farmers is like, on the very first episode,
one of the guys, one of the first women he
picks is the woman who says she's from New York
and she's never even touched a horse. And I'm thinking, Okay, well, buddy,
we see what your problem is. And that's also the question, right,
(26:44):
can we pick correctly for ourselves? Well, I'm in. I
will continue to watch. I'm curious to see how this
social experiment goes. And speaking of where we're gonna go,
we're going to take a break when we come back.
Speaking of Fox, Jenny McCarthy is going to join me
on the show today. She's on the panel of Mass Singer.
She has her own podcast, slash radio show. She always
(27:08):
has something great to say, and I can't wait to
dive in with Jenny McCarthy when we come back. Jenny McCarthy, Oh,
are you welcome to Welcome to the most dramatic podcast ever.
(27:30):
I could not wait. Can I tell you what sex dinner?
You calling in from the mood lighting behind you? The blue. Now,
there's two sex stands in this house, but this one
is for broadcasting. Okay, go great. What where are you?
I'm in my basement in which sat in Saint Charles, Illinois,
(27:54):
which is about an hour and a half outside of Chicago,
and if you will, close to pretty much rural Illinois.
You know, Laurenzima, my fiance is from Elgin. Oh my god,
that's like literally twenty minutes. You guys are neighbors. That's
why you're both phenomenal people, good Midwestern women. Congratulations on
(28:16):
another season of The mass Singer. Thank you very much.
I'm so lucky and blessed because this show is like,
it's finally something where I can feel proud well, and
it gets to the point and I don't think you
ever fully do this, but you can also relax a
little bit in that you know it's going to come back.
(28:39):
You know, I remember that tipping point of The Bachelor,
when you are in the middle of taping You're like,
I wonder if we'll do this again once you get
to the point where you can actually enjoy the fact
that you're already going to know it there are another
season's on the way. Is exciting, it's it's absolutely but
you know, in show business the show might go on,
but you might not. So you think our show is
(29:01):
going to go on without Jenny mccarthur, You're out of
your mind. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know,
the biggest blessing has been people around the country coming
up to me and saying, wow, you know, for the
first time in a very long time. Sometimes ever, my
child has left their computer at their phone comes in
next to me to watch this show like we did
back in the old days. My son likes to say,
(29:23):
back in the eighteen hundred, think of a crazy concept
getting together as a family and watching just a fun show,
right right. And you know it's fun because you know
people are in mask and they might be a famous
young YouTuber that you know, us old folks might not know.
But then you know, we get Dick van Dyke, which
we cry, all of us adults know. Do you want
(29:44):
to know a secret that I do? Only Lauren Zema
knows this. Now I'm going to tell you. Okay, they
reached out to me to be on the mask thing
or this season. What, Yeah, well you didn't do it?
Why well, I don't know if we should spoil it
that I didn't do it, but um, because I might
be just taking off one of the animal heads. True,
(30:06):
you could be you could be no. I I they
approached me. It is the same casting director that that
used to cast Dancing with the Stars, and so I
knew her. I've known her for quite some time, and
she reached out to me and thought, hey, you know,
this might be a good fit for you in this
kind of comeback tour. And so that they approached me. Chris,
do you sing? I don't? I mean I do. I
(30:29):
sing loud, but not well. And that's that that was
leading me to the question. And obviously that's something that
the majority of celebrities will worry about, is Hey, I
suck at singing, and it's okay because the show is
an entertainment show. So it's people like Gronkowski was on
right and he made it like almost three rounds. I
(30:51):
think he didn't make it three rounds because he was
so magnanimous, he was so had so much fun. He
had the audience, you know, in the palm of his hands.
So it's really just a matter of if you're having fun,
then the viewers having fun. Are they tweaking the voice
at all? I mean we do, Do we get a
little auto tune? No? Because it is, after all a
game show, you know, son, You're right, there are Yeah,
(31:14):
there are standards and practices involved, and lawyers get involved,
and it has to be all on the up and up. Now.
Mind you, this is coming from someone that has to
mouth Happy Birthday at parties because I can't sing right.
But I will say the one thing that is different
as a panelist, as a judge, they don't really have
the speakers near us so the house can hear it.
(31:35):
So that's why a lot of times we're leaning in interesting. Yeah,
I get that with a little harder. That's why when
I watch it at home, I'm like, of course it's
so and so you can hear it a lot clearer.
But we take the beatings from you know, you guys
on Twitter. It's okay that that just makes for the fun.
But that happened to me a lot during the Bachelor,
is that, like you said, the speakers would be for
the crowd and oftentimes somebody was a low talker, and
(31:57):
I couldn't hear, and I would miss little jabs and
little things, And you don't realize when you're in that moment.
It's just hard to pick things up in that audience
is loud and there's so much going on, and the
producers are talking in your ear, So there there is
a lot. I have a behind the scenes question though, Yeah,
so I love the show. Yes, it would have been
better if it were me taking off a pandahead this
(32:17):
year and just watching your reaction. But when you guys
are guessing, when the panel is guessing, who's who? Who
is it? Is that just you guys riffing? Are their
producers telling you? Because it cracks me up when you're like,
I think it's Barack Obama. I think it's Beyonce, Now
it's Bono those Obama is not going to be on
(32:40):
this show. Listen, if the producers were giving us, it's
us reaching when we really don't know or can't figure
out someone like those. A lot of times, when like
I can't remember that actress's name, I don't want to
butcher it right. I don't want to be a meme forever,
so you'll pull out a name that no one that
everybody knows that everybody that everybody like, is it Charlie
Throne therein? Damn it totally? And well, you know, Ken
(33:04):
Jong's got this whole thing now where he's just terrible
and it's works. You know, Well that's the thing. If
you're going to be so bad, you got to be consistent.
He can get away with it one hundred percent. Now,
mind you, I am very competitive, even though it's a
fluffy game show. I still like compete to get the
most right, Like we had golden ears that were given away, yes,
(33:25):
and I was like, what we're going to compete is
due who gets them? I mean, I'm literally out of
my mind. Are there any side bets going on with
the judges? No? They I think they've given up pretty
much because I'm really that good. You're just dominating. Well,
this is the thing. I'm sure those bozo's only read
Google alerts about themselves, where as me, I'm a pop
culture you know, the expert. I you know, just having
(33:48):
to do radio for seven years doing celebrity news, you
learn about everyone's dirt. So when there's clue packages going on,
I'm like, oh, I know, who got a divorce recently,
or I know who went through that traumatic thing. You
pick up on all those things, whereas they really only
know about themselves, which I like to make fun of
themselves for them. Speaking of your show, that's the last
time I saw you. I was trying to think the
last time we were together, and it was at your
(34:09):
show in New York at the XM Studios. It's been
a while since I've seen you pre COVID all those
crazy I know, so it's been a while, so it
almost seems like a blurry dream those years doesn't hit
missing you, and I always just speak so highly of
what an amazing person you have always been, and you're
always such a good supporter. I am gonna I'm gonna
(34:32):
do a little titbit of about you Tube for a second,
which was Chris came on on the view and I
think you're on for a whole week. I was, Yeah,
my daughter and I came out, but yeah, I co
hosted for a week for a week, and he was
so incredible. Of course, it's very good at what he does.
But we thought me and Cherry were like, oh my god,
we love him. We need to have him as the
first male co host on the view. So we went
(34:54):
to bat Me and Cherry were like, we do need
the first male calls. It's gotta be Chris. Gotta be Chris.
He's amazing and you we were so freaking good. It
was so great to have this male perspective. But you
did it so well, and I just feel like, now
looking back, it would have been the meanest thing. If
I've got you right, that would have been a special
kind of hell. You introduced me too. But you know
what's funny. I I came out there because so Barbara
(35:17):
Walters had this kind of go to executive producer Bill Getty,
and you know Bill. So Bill kind of ran the
view and he was the behind the scenes guy, and
then Barbara was there. So Barbara brought me in that
week to co host with you, thinking they were possibly
going to add a guy and that I might be
that person, and say they brought me in for the
week to kind of just try it out. And so
(35:38):
that actually was a topic of discussion for a little
time with Barbara and with Bill and this obviously before
Barbara left. It was so fun and it was fun
back then, you know, it really was fun back then. Yeah,
things got contentious but it remained fun and level headed exactly. Well.
The interesting thing is behind the scenes on that is
you know, when they hired me, they said, you know,
(36:00):
it was a little too polarizing this show. We want
to bring a pop culture person to make it light
and fluffy. Right, there's no one fluffier than myself. I
could like to fluff you are fluffy, you know, nothing
too serious and um. Within the first week of you know,
bring some pop cultures fun, Barbara was like, I miss fighting.
(36:21):
I missed the debate of politics, and they brought it
back in and I was After a week, I was like,
oh no, this is not it is not for me. Yeah,
this is not. I'm out the best thing you ever did.
Oh my god. It's you know, it's like I'm one
of those people that you know, um, you ever have
those like drunk relatives at the holidays and you kind
of get I have, like, you know, trauma. Being in
(36:44):
an Irish Catholic family from Chicago, there's always somebody that
you're just like and that's what you know, that kind
of fighting always made me feel like I have a
hard time watching shows that are you know, that kind
of brutal. But you watched and you one thing that
we had common. You watched The Bachelor and Bacherette back
in the day, and you were into that show, and
(37:05):
that those shows can give you that uncomfortable feeling. There's
that new show on Fox, Farmer Wants a Wife. I
know you love it. I do too, and I know
you watched it. There are those uncomfortable moments, but it's
somehow all out of love and so you don't feel
so bad. That is absolutely correct, you know. And it's
also you have a little bit of compassion for looking
(37:29):
at our youths, you know, looking at the younger generation
of like having to go through it, like you know,
that's easier than someone that's kind of being really vicious
and mean. And you got you got these farmers. This
guy's poor guys are like in the outskirts of nowhere,
and these women are coming in from Ellie'd be like you,
Jenny McCarthy rolling up to a ranch in her heels
(37:52):
like scoop and poop and bail and hay. I mean,
good luck. And guess what that farmer would have got
me because we have a ranch where we do all
that kind of stuff, and not necessarily we don't have
animals on it yet, but it's we love it. Like
the reason why I left La were two reasons. I
wanted my son to not be raised by a bunch
(38:13):
of crazy people in LA. There's just too much, you know,
it's chaotic. But also I was almost forty and still
looking for love, and I was like, you know, in
la Um, I just there were so many guys that
either if you're if you're forty in LA, you have
to date sixty because the forty year olds can date twenty. Right,
(38:35):
So I'm like, I don't want to slow down and
watch a reel of fortune, yet you know I want to.
I have so much in me still and the down
to earth feelings I got from Midwest guys. I'm like,
you know what, I'm going to go back home and
see if I can find somebody back there. So there
is something with this show that I feel like I
(38:56):
was trending way before the show, whereas like there's a
lot of people that are leaving the big s right,
you know, looking for love in and moving to these
world places. Well, the show has had such success, and
you know, in speaking of your success, and I love
the fact that you made a concerted effort to find love.
And that's and if you think, okay, this is v
(39:17):
Ginnie McCarthy, sex symbol, Playmate of the Year and she
left to make a real effort to find love. That
should tell everybody something that you make it a priority.
That's right, You absolutely make a priority. Not everyone could
pick up and leave, you know, their jobs, but I
mean I didn't have a job either. My agent was like,
you're what you're leaving, but you can make it a
(39:38):
priority wherever you are. I don't think you have to leave.
But to your point, to your credit, I love that.
And when you found Donnie, and this is what I'm
going to say, an underrated love story. The two of
you just man, y'all just fit. I love I love
you guys together, and I love what y'all have done.
(39:58):
And it's not that you're you know, you're prior relationships
were pretty public and you thought, okay, you know, Jenny
and Jim could work. They're cute. I see it. And
then when you see you and Donnie, you're like, oh,
that that works totally. You know, it's every day. We
still get butterflies. We talk about it, we text and
(40:19):
FaceTime at least, look, he just texts me right now,
I love you. It's constant. We FaceTime sleep together like
he's He literally reminds me of me. If there's such
thing as mirrors in relationships. Even my family and my
friends are like, oh my god. And it you know,
it took a long time. I remember putting it out
(40:39):
there to the universe saying, you know, okay, I'm done
having to cook anybody like. I don't want anyone medium, rareer.
I want them well done. They learn their lessons like
I've done the work here now. So the universe bring
me the level of vibration that I'm at because I
kept bringing guys in that I have to pull up
to my vibration I can make. I'm like I just
(41:02):
and he turned out to be everything. Speaking of farmer
once a wife, because those ladies are making a big
commitment to move. Donnie did that for you, right, he
moved to Chicago. I never I And by the way,
(41:25):
Chicago doesn't seem like that bad. But when you say
Saint Charles, Illinois, which is you know, we've got a
main street. It's mom and pop stores. He's an E's
Coast guy. He's a city guy. But when he came here.
He said, you know what, I've always fell in love
with the main street small town and he's like, Illinois
corn fields are different than you know, other kind of rulers,
(41:46):
but just corn everywhere. But he fell in love. He
literally I said, do you ever want to move? He said,
I can never. There's this there's this love. There's this
down to earth sensibility. You know what it is. We
live our life here. We don't work our life away.
We live our life interesting. It's so wonderful, feel like
what I get from the show. When I watched it too,
(42:08):
I was like, oh, just it. I have a feeling
those are going to be a lot of girls are
going to want to date farmers after this. Well, and
I to your point, I think it's important for the
woman or you know, I guess there's four. If they
end up with four, that will not be the square
peg in a round hole. Hopefully these farmers will see,
(42:28):
don't just get a city girl to get a city girl.
It's a girl that you don't need to, as you
put it, bake any further. Like she's actually willing and
ready and is a mirror image and ready to blend
into this life because you can get the opposite of that,
and it won't work. You know, it won't work real
quick because when you it's kind of like if you've
(42:50):
ever gone on vacation thinking it will destress your mind
and you realize, oh, my mind came with me, right,
you know, going to a small rural city, your mind
actually is louder. So if you haven't done the work
on yourself, those farmers are going to see a real
quick that they picked, you know, looks over love if
(43:11):
they don't pick right. You're also an amazing parent. And
lately you have been talking about twenty year old and
we both our kids are about the same age. I
have a twenty one year old nineteen year old Evans
what twenty twenty? Yeah, twenty it's crazy. And he's venturing
off into the world of music only one time so far,
(43:32):
but it is for love. For what he loves music
or he's using music to find love. He fell in love. Well,
this is the story and I'll make it quick. Yes,
his heart got broken by his girlfriend. His girlfriend him,
and so he was devastated and put and he's such
(43:53):
a big hearted, loving teddy bear. He mourned and put
all of his love into this love for his crush.
They's head Forever, which is Selena Gomez, and he wrote
these beautiful lyrics and he called me in the room
and he said, will you take a look at this
love song I wrote for Selena Gomez? And I'm like, oh,
that's those are nice little words. I love that. That
(44:13):
was very sweet, patted on the head and left. The
next thing I know, Johnny said, oh, I'm gonna have
him like sing to this song. And I'm like, really
he sings like me though, and he's like, He's like,
he sounds really good and those the words are sweet.
And the next thing I know, my ex husband who
(44:34):
shoots music videos, like, let me put a music video together.
And while we've got um, he posted his first song
called um it Doesn't Matter under Evan Asher, so if
you want to check it out. But Selena Gomez hasn't
contacted him yet, this is a great story to follow
up on. Oh God, and every single every two hours
(44:56):
he asked me if I've heard from Selena Gomez. That's funny. Well,
so I guess it begs the question then, because I
am in this camp too with my kids of how
far you go? Right? You want to help your kids.
You want to push their dreams and goals and all
those things, but there's a point where you could, you know,
get diminishing returns and you can almost hurt them at times.
(45:17):
And you know, Donnie obviously very well connected the music world.
You are connected in the media and so and it
sounds like your ex husband has jumped in. So that's
a lot you have to try and weigh. That was
that difficult for you, guys? No, because I know that
music isn't necessarily his passion. He loves He's in college
right now for videography. He does really good job with
(45:40):
his YouTube channel, Gaming USA, and he films. He loves
filming that whenever I see a spark in him, I
will put everything I've got behind it. Yeah, this was
a family affair to help heal someone's heart. You know,
this is this is more or less why we all
came to there's a family because my stepson, his stepbrother.
(46:03):
I wrote the melody, the music to it, and so
it was a family affair of just you know, making
even feel better and wanting him to send a song
to his crush. This is like the new age dysfunctional
Partridge family completely And you know, It takes a lot
for me not to just like call her agent or
publicist to say, how don't you just so it's you know,
(46:24):
I'm not like pounding social media yet. Yeah, but I'm like,
let's just give it a few weeks of let's give
it like a good month and see if you can
just do this and reach out and you know, maybe
you'll get a follow or maybe you'll just get a heart.
It sounds like you are in a wonderful place in life.
You just seem like you have this balance. This even
(46:46):
this about you is that accurate? That is one hundred
percent accurate. I'm so grateful every day. I'm like, I'm
so grateful. I love I love myself, I love my family.
I'm grateful for health, I'm grateful for my job. It's
just I'm really at that place. And it took a
lot of work because there's been a lot of a
lot of crap in my life that I have put
up with. But it's you know, it's not how you
(47:08):
get knocked down, it's how you get up. And I
just keep getting up. Yeah, I was tell my kids,
it's a roller coaster ride. It's not just this simple
straight ascent that life doesn't treat you like that. It's true,
and you know, and you get your feelings hurt. And
the thing is, you don't run away and quit. You
just get up and keep going. And I felt like
I'm always going to be a juggernaut. You know, I'm
(47:29):
just gonna just keep Oh you don't want me, I'm
going I'm find someone that does. I'm gonna keep going.
You know, it's been thirty years in this business. You
know when I've read numerous Oh, her fifteen minutes are up,
her fifteen minutes are up. Well, I'm still here. I'm
not betting against you, thanks Chriss. I'm still leading at Wahlburger's.
Damn it. By the way, I when I was shooting
(47:51):
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In Vegas? I would
we would shoot. I would stay at Caesar's. But it's
behind it's actually kind of in front of balleys, and
we've shot behind ballot, we shoot into the night. We'd
get done inevitably on our way home, it's like, well,
there's Wallburgers. We'd stop grab a burger. And by the way,
it's a good burger. It's a good burg I'm gonna
give it a little promo Wallburgers. Yeah, it's a good burger.
(48:14):
Tell Donnie, I'm giving. I'm a plug. I totally will to.
Speaking of plugs, I do want to ask you a
question about the Farmer Show, Jennifer. What do you think
of her as a host? I spoke to Jennifer, and uh,
she's going to be on one of the shows this
week as well. She was great, I was, I thought,
and I told her this, it's easy. It's easy to
look like a fish out of water in those moments
(48:37):
you get the country singer. I get it, it's a
country show, but it's not that simple to blend in.
I think she did a great job. I told her,
I want more nettles. They didn't give me enough. They
didn't give me enough. She came on screen, so she is,
by the way, lovable, likable, all those things. But sometimes
you don't read that on screen. Yeah, you absolutely do.
(48:57):
Like the fact everyone was excited to see her. I mean,
she's one of those people. It's like, I'd love to
meet someone that doesn't love Jennifer Nows because because then
she's just someone who hates puppies. I mean, how do
you not trite Jennifer Neddles. She was She was great
and she is lovely. She's talented as can be. But
I told her it is not an easy thing just
because you're a country girl to come on a country show.
(49:17):
She she did it. She did it very well. She's
talented and you know what she really is. You know
what's interesting, Chris With these dating shows too, it's like,
in the beginning, you see these farmers like, oh my god,
I get be doing all these girls. Oh my god,
with all these girls was so much fun. But then
you see that turn when it gets hard to let
people go, and that's you know, it's a very humbling
(49:38):
moment for to watch. Well, we used to tell The Bachelor,
it's like, yeah, you're all excited, you're dating thirty girls.
That means you're breaking up with twenty nine people. That's
that's that's what's going to happen. And remember you're only
going home with one, so everybody else here you're gonna
have to say goodbye to and break their heart or
be dumped by them. And that's exactly. I like the
(49:59):
girl that in the first episode where the farmer's like, hey,
I'd love for you to stay on my farm and
She's like, yeah, no, I'm going back to New York right,
good for you. Well, the one thing I do love
too is like they've got the farmers and they've got
the girls, and it's like a two way street. So
the girls get to look at the farmers and go,
I'm more into you than you. Yeah, you know. So
they get to kind of choose who they want, and
(50:19):
then the farmers counter near it down. From there they
decide where they're going to Cowboy up right and the
girl there's a girl. I want you guys to keep
up Cassidy Joe. I got a kick out of her
Last bunks Bunk, Cassie Joe, Last bunk, Yeah, Cassie Joe,
speaking of spunk, You're just the best, and I so
appreciate you coming on. I've missed you. Our paths across
(50:42):
many times in this business, and I've loved every moment
we've had a chance to work together, beside each other,
beyond each other's shows. You're just one of those people
in life. Every time I get to bump into I'm
so happy you too. I hope you know that I
mean that, And I'm always like I want to do
something now. Chris he's so talented and so down to earth.
We just we must have been related in another life
because it's just too easy. It is. It's been phenomenal.
(51:04):
I'm glad we've had the chance to work to you,
and I'm so excited by the way the ratings are
crushing it again for massing Or. I was really nervously
looking at it because I knew you were going to
be on the show and I'm like, Okay, I hope
the premier is big, and it did. It premiered huge again,
and we've got great theme nights, you guys. The theme
nights are out of this world this season. Jennifer's on right,
Jennifer Nettles is a guest panel She's a guest panelist
(51:26):
this season. And we've got the like eighties themes, DC Heroes,
Sesame Street, and New York Theme is this week, so
you may check it out because it's really really fun. Well,
the only thing that would have made it worse is
if I had been there taking off the awesol lot head. Oh,
I hope you do come one season in the future.
Never know, you never know. I do know this. I
(51:46):
appreciate you and thank you so much for being on
the show of course, of course, thank you so much.
I'll talk to you soon, my friend, you got it
by hunt My thanks to Jenny McCarthy. Just one of
those people that I have been blessed to get to
know in my career and just love her to death.
Just always positive, always a pleasant person to be around
(52:09):
and work with. And now that she's gone, I want
to give her a shameless plug because she has a
new line, a lip gloss line called Formless Beauty. If
you want to check it out, go to formless Beauty
dot com. And pretty interesting about the mass singer, and
it was funny. I hadn't even thought about being offered
that till she was coming on the show, and it
raises the question would I ever do it? I'll never sing,
(52:31):
never to anything. I love music. I do love to sing.
I'm not great at it, but I can get through it.
Like anything. The timing has to be right, so we
will see. Maybe I'll be taking off that panda head someday.
But thanks for joining us today, and thanks to my
guest Jenny McCarthy. Just the best, and you are the best.
(52:53):
I appreciate you being with me each and every week
here on the most dramatic podcast ever. I will see
you next time because we have a lot more to
talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at
the most Dramatic pod Ever, and make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk
to you next time.
This is the most dramatic podcast ever and I heart
radio podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome to the most dramatic
podcast ever. I am Chris Harrison, join once again by
the lovely Laurenzima, who is back with this this week.
Tan rested and ready to keel it up after a
(00:21):
girl's trip. Wow, maybe too much tequila. I mean, when
you're drinking every day, you got to stop it at
some point. At some point when you're on vacation, you're
thinking I need a vacation from Yes, my liver needs
a spa. Yes, But I'm glad you're home. I'm glad
you're back. By the way, thank you for giving me
a mention while I was gone. I loved what you
(00:41):
said about how we take time to do things that
are important to each of us, to have girls trips,
have guys trips, and I like missing you. It's nice
to miss you. It was one of the things that
I loved quickly about you is that your friends are
dear to you. You make them a priority along with
your family, and that was clear that, Hey, you still
(01:02):
need to keep your life. I'm going to keep mine.
They will blend clearly, and that's one of the beautiful
things about a relationship, but we also got to keep
our separate lives going for our individuality but also to
feed our soul in those ways. And I love that.
It's an important balance to find because I do think
people sometimes you walk that dangerous line of thinking opposites
(01:23):
attract and then you wind up with somebody who you
have nothing in common with, Like you have to like
to do the same things, but at the same time,
you have to have your own things, because it's exciting
to tell somebody about your day and to show them
something you love and teach them about it. And in
this case, I loved tequila and girlfriends. But anyway, we
also talk about I could go on a rant about this,
but you know what we talk about a lot is
(01:44):
the difference between a girl's trip and a guy's trip.
Like I always say, when me and my girlfriends go
on a trip, the activity is talking, right. We are
talking the whole time. We are diving in like how
is your marriage, what's going on with you? We get deep,
we probably cry at some point, and then when you
come back from like a guy's golf, Guys base their
trips on an activity, right, So our activity is we're
(02:08):
going hunting, we're going fishing, we're going golfing. So we
have an activity and around that there might be some
talk possibly that goes deep. But we have an activity,
whereas your activity is we're going to be together and
just talk. Well, we could really dig into all this.
It might be a whole episode on its side. Do
(02:28):
this someday because it is fascinating and how women talk
and will actually well, I don't want to go too far,
but we will get into this someday. I think sleeping
arrangements are very interesting to me, and that I don't
want to scratch the surface, because once we get going,
we will dive into this rabbit hole. It is award season, Elsie.
You are obviously deep into this world, having worked at
(02:50):
entertainment tonight for the better part of a decade. Well
you are too, mister. You did money Red Carpets for
Team I did actually a little known fact because very
little of you watched this, but I was on the
Red carpet for TV Guide. I executive produced and hosted
the Red Carpet for TV Guide for many years. So
obviously did the Globes, the SAG Awards, which were last night.
The Grammys and the Oscars. Those are the big four
(03:12):
of the redheaded step children. The SAG Awards are kind
of the lesser known, lesser talked about publicly but privately
within Hollywood. It is a very time honored tradition because
it's so personal. It is the Screen Actors Guild. Well,
what's interesting is a lot of people are saying that
this awards show last night was just a really good show,
(03:32):
like that the speeches were fun, that it was just
enjoyable to watch. I mean, of course, we get into
the most dramatic headlines every week, and what's more dramatic
than a bunch of actors in a room together. But
you and I wanted to talk about it because it's
interesting too, Like one, you know, we talk about both
being in TV, not just the content itself, but how
(03:54):
people receive it. And we were wondering how many people
were going to watch these SAG Awards because it was
live streamed on Netflix's YouTube channel. I went and checked
it had almost a million views as of Monday morning.
What do you think, mister ratings guy? You always follow
the ratings. You follow TV ratings for a long time.
I mean, look, I know a certain show that doesn't
(04:17):
get three million viewers. So for something online to get
a million viewers, and that's really kind of where the
standard is now. So it's interesting to me that they
have leaned into and you said they're going to come
on Netflix next year, on lave next year, it's going
to be live streamed on Netflix's main I mean, not
just on Netflix. It's look, we've both seen this business
go through so much change over the past couple of years.
(04:40):
I mean, I don't think people don't awards shows like
the Oscars the Emmys, even though you have the biggest
stars in the world. I don't think they're going to
ever get the numbers they once did, but people do
still talk about it online. I mean, it kind of
sucks for the broadcast networks because people don't watch the
main show and that's where they get their advertising dollars.
But and I'll be as we're about to sit here
(05:00):
and talk about it, you and I did not watch
the SAG Awards. We're just looking at the clips this moment. Ironically,
I was on Netflix. I was watching the new season
of Drive to Survive, which I'm addicted to, which is phenomenal,
and I'm not even a car guy. I just love
the soap opera storylines of it. I think it's a
great reality show. But yeah, I was on Netflix but
not watching the SAG Awards. Yes, and look to your
(05:21):
point is it's not a novelty anymore to see the
big stars. When I was growing up, and it's not
that long ago, the only time you could see big
stars Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, whatever was if
you tuned in to the Red Carpet, if you tuned
into the Big Show. Now, it was the only opportunity
to see them in kind of a natural moment. I mean,
(05:42):
interviews aren't the most natural, but an interview, yes, at
the time it was novel, and now it's not even
noiving a speech because of social media, because of you know,
just just this saturation of ways that we can get
to these celebrities. There are very few that have kept
their distance. I mean, you don't hear a lot of
Tom Hanks, But even a guy like Tom Hanks, I've
(06:04):
seen him. I've seen him on the round table, I've
seen him doing certain things now where I just see
him more so if I see him on the Red Carpet,
it's not like, oh my gosh, I haven't. I haven't
seen this guy speak outside of this movie in a year.
And even Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise was on Netflix's special
last night. He was on Drive to Survive. When else
(06:24):
would you ever see Tom Cruise? A guy like Tom Cruise?
But he was in the pits of the Mercedes drivers
last night. He was not at the Sagoars. He was not.
I don't know if he was nominated. Actually, if not,
he should have been for Top Gun. Was he? I
don't think he was nominated Top Guns should have been nominated.
I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to look this up
really quick. But anyway, so people don't watch it as much,
(06:46):
but the little, you know, speeches still go viral. We
still talk about the red carpet looks. By the way,
shout out to my personal faves. I don't know if
he looked up the looks, but Zendea, Quinta Brunson, Haley
Lou Richardson from The White Lotus looked at me saying
given a shout out to a couple of guys. Austin
Butler rock in a great suit and Eddie Redmain had
(07:06):
like a big bow tie situation and I enjoyed it.
So there were some good looks. Zendan Quinton Brunson just
never missed. What were there two of my favorites? What
were the big storylines? Because you know from the Golden
Globes we kind of got a hint of things. But
now when you get to the SAG Awards, you get
those through lines from award show to award theme. Yes,
(07:27):
at which I do love. There tends to be a
theme that comes out of an award season because the
same movies are nominated in each show, and so you
kind of see the same people and you get these stories.
And the one that I am loving this year is
actually across a couple of different properties, and you got
to see it at SAG because they award TV and film, right,
But is this theme of a second chance later in life?
(07:51):
We saw Brendan Fraser when Last Night for the Whale
and you know, Star of the Mummy, Star of School
Ties and all these movies when he was like young
and mussle and then we didn't see him for a
long time and now he's come back in the Renaissance
and he spoke in his speech he won about the
courage to hold on and to keep going and to
put one foot in front of the other and that
things will happen. And then Kihui Kwan, who we all
(08:14):
know from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He
was a child star, he was in the goonies, and
then he basically said there were not, unfortunately terribly opportunities
for him as an Asian actor in Hollywood, so he
disappeared for decades, and now decades later he's back winning
as a first the first time ever an Asian actor
has won in Best Supporting for Everything, everywhere, all at once,
(08:37):
and he gosh, I mean, he's tearing up in his
speech talking about again how he got this chance and
he didn't think it would happen for him. And then
Jennifer Coolidge wins for the White Lotus cracks everybody up.
And she's a woman who is the hottie Stiffler's mom
in American Pie. She's been legally ever disappoints in her speeches. No,
I mean from every speech I've heard, I hang on
(08:59):
every word is. I never know what's coming out of
her mouth next. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sentimental. I
love her speeches. She's She's been a great breath of
fresh air this awards. But listen to what you just said.
I love that, a breath of fresh air, fresh air
from someone who is I think Jennifer Cooldge is in
her sixties and she's talking about how she's getting this
(09:21):
second chance. And by the way, as we all know
in Hollywood, opportunities for women tend to get less as
they get older. Yeah. So it's just been this beautiful,
like inspiring thing of it doesn't have to be over.
And I love that because I mean, I always try
to tell myself, I can't wait to see what's next.
(09:41):
The best is yet to come, and what you know, well,
let's let's be real, Chris Harrison, you're seventeen years older
than me, is the best? What's yet to go? I'm excited.
It's funny. I just texted this to my daughter this morning,
that when you wake up and life gives you a
clean slate, I find that an excite time. She just
(10:01):
went through something where she has a clean slate in life.
So did I emotionally when you and I went through
what we went through, and while it sucked, and I
would not wish that on anybody, and I didn't want
to go through that that way. I relish a clean
slate in life and sticking with your passion, sticking with
what you love and going for that is I think
(10:25):
extraordinary and it takes a lot there. I was watching
golf yesterday. There's this thirty seven year old man, Chris Kirk,
who won for the first time in eight years. He's
thirty seven. That's really getting old as far as professional golfers.
On the PGA tour. You're kind of hoping to get
to fifty to get to that senior tour. And he's
not a big star, And so what is it within
(10:45):
certain people that they will just continue to grind and
go with this passion. I feel excited about a clean slate.
And I don't know if Jennifer Coolidge felt like that
that way, because she's been, you know, staying in this business.
But I just find it interesting. I think we view light.
We all view life is very linear, right, which makes
(11:06):
sense because it's time and it happens linearly as we
see it every day. But your career, you know, I
don't know. I grew up thinking and my parents weren't
wrong for this, but like work hard and do well
and work your way up in your industry. But acting,
especially the business weren't in, is so not linear. Like
you can have zero opportunities and then all of a
(11:26):
sudden everything can change, or you can be like a
child star and then the opportunities fade away. So it's
not linear. And I think they're showing like this award
season is showing a change in Hollywood, like a celebration
that you can be older and still be doing exciting
new things. And I love that because gosh, if we're
(11:47):
not like continuing to grow and evolve as people and
get better and experience more and learn, than what else
are we doing? You know? Life is like the stock market.
It's like it's a roller coaster ride. It's not this
slow ascension straight up. There are severe ups and downs.
You did tell me the other day, you said that
you texted your dad that you were really happy right now.
(12:07):
I did, ye. I am as happy as I have
ever been in life. Love professionally. I love having this podcast.
I love having this platform. I love doing it with you.
I love that a woman stopped me in the gym
this morning and said, Chris, I'm listening to your podcast.
I love hearing from you. I love hearing from Lauren
and so I love the impact this is head. So
(12:27):
I love where we are right now. Yeah, and this
too shall pass and change yes and on to the next. Oh.
I saw this great quote from Tom Hanks. Let's circle
back too on that panel. Yes, And he said that
this thing that sticks with him is this too shall
pass in both ways, like, this too shall pass. If
you're going through a tough time, at shall pass. And
if you're going through a good time, that will pass too.
(12:48):
So enjoy the moments and appreciate where you're at. Yeah,
when the critics are crushing you, this too shall pass.
But he said, when you win an oscar, this too
shall pass. Yes. Very interesting. One bone to pick with
the SAG Awards. I've always had this issue with the SAgs,
which I have covered. I've been on the red carpet.
Here comes the drama. I'm a member of SAG. Are
you you are too? So where do you think I'm
(13:11):
getting my health insurance? We are both SAG after members.
I have been a SAG member for many years. They
never recognize reality TV shows. The SAgs represent and celebrate
TV and film, and they've just never given into the
reality World. And I remember back in the early two
thousands when we were really crushing it, Idol was crushing it,
(13:35):
some of these other shows were really picking up steam,
and I thought they were going to give in like
the Emmys did, and they just never have relented in
that way. So there's no reality TV categories. None. None.
That's such a good point, because yeah, it's SAG AFTRA,
I mean, which they combined years ago to include like
radio televisions. Well, I promise Ryan Seacrest Bergier on me, felk.
(13:57):
I mean, we're all SAG members. You have to be
by the way, because shows, I mean to explain it,
the way shows work is their union shows. So you
have to be a union member in order to work
on these shows. And you're right, there's no reality TV
kind of that's my only bone to pick, and I
think that is obviously it's it's something a part of
the industry that was we were the call girl, oh
(14:19):
if you will of the business. Sure, people love to
sleep with us, but no one wanted to talk to
us in the morning. They didn't want to bring you
out to dinner, they didn't want to take us out
in public. That's how people looked at reality TV. I'll
never forget the way the president of ABC spoke of
The Bachelor in those early days. It was like almost apologetic,
And now everybody's kind of leaned into it, and even
(14:40):
some of the biggest stars in our business are doing
reality shows. So I'm kind of shocked that the SAgs
have just never gone that direction. Well, we have talked
before too about I mean, I'm looking up at at
our mantle right now. You have an Emmy nomination for
when you hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But
I when I was covering the show, always had a
bone to pick with the Emmys about the fact that
(15:01):
The Bachelor, you guys never won, were you ever even nominated,
never nominated for anything in any category, which is nuts.
You're the number one reality TV show, the work the
crew did, the production value of The Bachelor, it is
nuts that it was never nominated. It takes a big campaign.
We never leaned into the campaign of it all. I mean, look,
the politics of it is this, and I'm surprised we
(15:23):
didn't at least get nominated. I agree with that, but
if the people this is hard politically to say. If
the person that's running the show is not very popular
in this business, You're not going to get the votes.
You're talking you're talking about saying body. I'm just saying anybody,
any show, if the person running it, the person that
(15:43):
created it, is not a popular person and somewhat disliked
in this business, you're not going to get the votes.
Bruckheimer did amazing Race. They won at nauseum, to the
point where I was there one year and people were
kind laughing because American Idol was the Michael Jordan of
reality TV for a while. It should have just won
(16:04):
every year. It was just, yeah, it changed television. It
changed all kinds of things about our business. And it
you know, it wasn't winning year in a year out.
It was amazing Race, not that amazing Race. Wasn't a
beautiful show and shot well and all that. But I
was disappointed that we didn't win for direction art, you know,
even some of just the peripheral awards. But yeah, No,
(16:25):
Bachelor was just completely ignored during awards season, and they
leaned into it for a while. All of a sudden,
warners like, oh, we're gonna try and win an Emmy.
I'm like, no, we're not. Like if if you didn't
win By. Now, if you weren't recognized by now, clearly
you're not liked, you're not going to be nominated. Well
it's you and Tom Cruise. I'm just confirming here in
the SAG list. Okay, top Gun Maverick was nominated for
(16:47):
stunt on Somble in a Motion Picture. I remember. It's only,
of course, like performance nominations for the SAG Awards, it's
about acting that stunt. What was that category, stunt onsemble.
I didn't even know stunt onsemble was a thing, but
that when top Gun Maverick did not get an ensemble
nomination overall, wow, um, Tom Cruise not nominated. It's it's
(17:10):
always interesting to me awards shows struggle to acknowledge the
biggest movies there are. They don't. That's why the Golden
Globes got it right. It's a cocktail party and we
don't care. The foreign press Hollywood forign press is like,
we don't care. We're just we're going to bring the
biggest stars in the world, whatever movie they were in,
we want them on the red carpet. Well, there was
a lot they got wrong, so a lot they need
to work on, but they got the big movie thing. Right.
(17:31):
But one of the things that the SAG's got wrong
is not representing reality shows. Speaking of reality shows, there
is a new one on the horizon. It is out.
(17:52):
It's on Fox. It is called Farmer Wants a Wife.
You have worn a plaid shirt for it here. I
have warned plaid shirt to look like a farmer. And
we are authentic because we're shooting this in Austin, Texas.
We moved here just for this. No, So I watched
Farmer Once a Wife. We watched it separately, actually to
(18:13):
get because we didn't run to watch it together so
we could get our thoughts on this. It immediately gave
me Chris Souls vibes right back. Took me back to
the day with Farmer Chris Souls who lived in Iowa.
Farmer and I went to his house. We shot there.
We were in Iowa, and the closest town, my hotel,
(18:34):
was a good hour away from his house. And that
was a small town. So the closest he's coming to
a Starbucks, a good bar, a restaurant. It's an hour away.
So I get this life of farmer needs a wife
because farmer ain't meeting anybody unless it has four legs
(18:54):
and some hoofs. So it is difficult, I get it.
So but it took me back to that show, which
I loved. I loved doing that with christ Souls Farmer
Once a Wife. We sat down, we watched it. It
instantly gave me the Bachelor meets Yellowstone vibes, but with
four bachelors. And you're right, I thought of Christuls too,
because it made me realize how real his struggle was.
(19:17):
These guys, these four guys on Farmer Once a Wife,
they're kind of farmers, ranchers. I don't know the difference between,
like they have cattle, I don't know. But they are
living in the middle of nowhere. One guy says his
closest neighbor is two miles away. I'm telling you that's
I went to Chris's house. It's that's legit. And and
by the way, it's not even getting on a road.
You're getting on a dirt road then to get to
(19:40):
someone else's right. So I have to give this show
credit on that. I believe it was something I did
struggle with when covering Bachelor Bachelorette, was believing the reality
that these people were actually struggling to find love, like
I'll never forget sitting interviewing. I used to interview the
leads on their first photoshoots, so before filming had started.
(20:01):
They're taking their promo photos as the Bachelor Bachelorette, and
I'm sitting there with the wonderful Jojoe Fletcher, who we love.
But at the time I had to say to her,
I'm just meeting her, and I said, I gotta ask you.
You know you're I think she was twenty four. You're
twenty four, gorgeous, You've barely gotten out of college. You're beautiful,
you're fun, you're kind, You're really struggling to find a date.
(20:23):
This is you're really struggling to find the one. I
mean at twenty four, you've barely You're not even like
you've barely been looking for the one yet you haven't
even put in that much time. So that was something
I struggled with believing on the show. Jordan Rodgers would argue, yes,
but with these guys, I mean also, there are four
guys all in their thirties, Hunter, Alan, Ryan, and Landon.
Those are your four farmers. And the way this is
(20:44):
set up, they've they've already done at This is interesting
because getting into these shows is always the difficult part
as a producer, And so what I liked is they've
done some some leg work already. They've shown these guys
some films, some tapes, some pictures, what have you. They
narrow it down to eight, So we start with eight,
then they narrow it down to five that first episode,
(21:06):
and those five are immediately moving in with these farmers,
not to the glorious mansion you know in quote unquote Malibu,
you're moving on to their farm immediately. They're going straight
to hometowns. Yes, so they basically kind of did interviews
on paper and then narrowed it down. You do not
pass goo, you do not get an overnight fantasy suite,
(21:27):
and you're not get a balloon ride or a nice beach.
You're going straight to the farm. Straight to that. Honestly,
I mean they are literally shoveling, Yes, and we're probably
going to bleep out me saying that, but I don't
know how manure they're They're shoveling manure metaphorically and literally
right away. You rarely ever cuss. It's kind of sexy
when you do. Wow, Well, we're gonna take a time
(21:53):
out and come benou so well, yeah, and they get
right into it. And also, like I said, these guys
are all in their thirties, so I really the believability
factor on this show for me was pretty high in
terms of I felt like this is real. These guys
really have not been able to find someone. Also, all
the contestants were a little bit older. Which look, I'm
(22:16):
not saying, of course, in your twenties you deserve to
find love and you should be looking for it. But
if we're talking about if we're basing this around the
narrative of I haven't been able to find love, I
find it more believable with people who are a bit older,
because I think you've literally spent the time searching. Well,
I've done. I did little research on this show. I
wasn't aware it's already in thirty five countries Farmer once
a Wife. Yes, it's already around the world, and so
(22:38):
it's sometimes a concept will either be created in America
taken around the world, like the Bachelor Bacherette. But sometimes
we get a foreign concept and international concept and bring
it to America. And so this has worked around the
world and now oddly it's just coming to America. You
would think a show like this would have started here
because we're you know, we're so into the heartland. It
(23:00):
always brings up that interesting fish out of water scenario
in dating, where you're you have the country boys and
then you have these women from La New York, you know,
cosmopolitan in their high heels, their beautiful white tennis shoes,
walking through the muck and the mud. And it brings
up an interesting point in relationships, is it? And do
(23:23):
you believe in birds of a feather stick together or
do you believe in opposite attract? Oh, we were just
talking about earlier. Yes, um, are you asking me? Yeah?
I mean, and I think I think maybe both are
applicable at times. Well, I think that you have to
find someone who challenges you, like someone who maybe and
(23:45):
maybe balances you out, has qualities other like you are
much calmer than I am, so I'm less dramatic, which
is great for us. But you know, I think, as
I said before, I think it's about finding someone who
likes to do the same things. Maybe your personalities balance
each other out, but you have to be in common
(24:06):
and how you like to live on, what you want
to get out of life, how you want to live
your life, like that's the big question for these people.
Do you want to really come live on a farm? Right?
And do you really want to be shoveling the ship
every day? Because this is real and I love that
they dropped them right in the middle of it. I
also kind of you know, another criticism of people on
reality dating shows has been are they just in it
for the fame? But these guys, I'm like, yeah, there's
(24:28):
no fame here and these are their real jobs. I mean,
one guy's like, I am a fourth generation farmer. This
is my family's farm. I was thinking. No part of
me was thinking, oh, these guys are just trying to
move to LA and get a career as an influencer.
Like I believe that this is what they're really doing.
There was one thing that stood out to me because
I felt like it was standing out to you, Oh
(24:50):
you're watching it, thinking of how I was watching. Yeah,
can you think of what that was that stood out
to me? Where I'm like, oh, she's she's gonna talk
about Oh it's a little but I wrote it down
to the stupid saying red, next thing say stupid, But
I didn't understand them. I think one guy said, did
you write it down. What were they What did they say? So?
One farmer said, Ashley's just cuter than a speckled pup
(25:16):
sleeping under the shade of a wagon wheel. Okay, now
say it is if you would actually say it, Ashes
just cut and a speckled pup sleeping under the shade
of a wagon wheel. This is when you're born in Dallas, Texas.
Side comes out. Chris will say things, you guys, and
I don't know what they mean. The one that gets
me every time is you will say, is if, like,
(25:38):
in all seriousness, I'm so hungry I could eat the
crotch out of a loafly and duck. I do say
that from time to time. What does that mean? I
don't Honestly, I don't know, and I don't know where
it came from. They were just sayings in my family. Um, yeah,
crotch happier in clam. There was another saying that I
(25:59):
have used before. He got it slightly wrong on the show.
More nervous than a cat and a roomfull of rocking chairs.
It is a I think the correct redneck saying is
more nervous than a long tailed cat and a room
full of rocking chairs. But that was Also, I just knew.
I knew that was going to stand out to you,
those redneck sayings. I didn't even know a long tailed
cat was a real thing. Farmer wants a wife. Yes,
(26:21):
I look it again, it felt very real to me.
I'll be interested to see what happens. The question also
for these farmers is like, on the very first episode,
one of the guys, one of the first women he
picks is the woman who says she's from New York
and she's never even touched a horse. And I'm thinking, Okay, well, buddy,
we see what your problem is. And that's also the question, right,
(26:44):
can we pick correctly for ourselves? Well, I'm in. I
will continue to watch. I'm curious to see how this
social experiment goes. And speaking of where we're gonna go,
we're going to take a break when we come back.
Speaking of Fox, Jenny McCarthy is going to join me
on the show today. She's on the panel of Mass Singer.
She has her own podcast, slash radio show. She always
(27:08):
has something great to say, and I can't wait to
dive in with Jenny McCarthy when we come back. Jenny McCarthy, Oh,
are you welcome to Welcome to the most dramatic podcast ever.
(27:30):
I could not wait. Can I tell you what sex dinner?
You calling in from the mood lighting behind you? The blue. Now,
there's two sex stands in this house, but this one
is for broadcasting. Okay, go great. What where are you?
I'm in my basement in which sat in Saint Charles, Illinois,
(27:54):
which is about an hour and a half outside of Chicago,
and if you will, close to pretty much rural Illinois.
You know, Laurenzima, my fiance is from Elgin. Oh my god,
that's like literally twenty minutes. You guys are neighbors. That's
why you're both phenomenal people, good Midwestern women. Congratulations on
(28:16):
another season of The mass Singer. Thank you very much.
I'm so lucky and blessed because this show is like,
it's finally something where I can feel proud well, and
it gets to the point and I don't think you
ever fully do this, but you can also relax a
little bit in that you know it's going to come back.
(28:39):
You know, I remember that tipping point of The Bachelor,
when you are in the middle of taping You're like,
I wonder if we'll do this again once you get
to the point where you can actually enjoy the fact
that you're already going to know it there are another
season's on the way. Is exciting, it's it's absolutely but
you know, in show business the show might go on,
but you might not. So you think our show is
(29:01):
going to go on without Jenny mccarthur, You're out of
your mind. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know,
the biggest blessing has been people around the country coming
up to me and saying, wow, you know, for the
first time in a very long time. Sometimes ever, my
child has left their computer at their phone comes in
next to me to watch this show like we did
back in the old days. My son likes to say,
(29:23):
back in the eighteen hundred, think of a crazy concept
getting together as a family and watching just a fun show,
right right. And you know it's fun because you know
people are in mask and they might be a famous
young YouTuber that you know, us old folks might not know.
But then you know, we get Dick van Dyke, which
we cry, all of us adults know. Do you want
(29:44):
to know a secret that I do? Only Lauren Zema
knows this. Now I'm going to tell you. Okay, they
reached out to me to be on the mask thing
or this season. What, Yeah, well you didn't do it?
Why well, I don't know if we should spoil it
that I didn't do it, but um, because I might
be just taking off one of the animal heads. True,
(30:06):
you could be you could be no. I I they
approached me. It is the same casting director that that
used to cast Dancing with the Stars, and so I
knew her. I've known her for quite some time, and
she reached out to me and thought, hey, you know,
this might be a good fit for you in this
kind of comeback tour. And so that they approached me. Chris,
do you sing? I don't? I mean I do. I
(30:29):
sing loud, but not well. And that's that that was
leading me to the question. And obviously that's something that
the majority of celebrities will worry about, is Hey, I
suck at singing, and it's okay because the show is
an entertainment show. So it's people like Gronkowski was on
right and he made it like almost three rounds. I
(30:51):
think he didn't make it three rounds because he was
so magnanimous, he was so had so much fun. He
had the audience, you know, in the palm of his hands.
So it's really just a matter of if you're having fun,
then the viewers having fun. Are they tweaking the voice
at all? I mean we do, Do we get a
little auto tune? No? Because it is, after all a
game show, you know, son, You're right, there are Yeah,
(31:14):
there are standards and practices involved, and lawyers get involved,
and it has to be all on the up and up. Now.
Mind you, this is coming from someone that has to
mouth Happy Birthday at parties because I can't sing right.
But I will say the one thing that is different
as a panelist, as a judge, they don't really have
the speakers near us so the house can hear it.
(31:35):
So that's why a lot of times we're leaning in interesting. Yeah,
I get that with a little harder. That's why when
I watch it at home, I'm like, of course it's
so and so you can hear it a lot clearer.
But we take the beatings from you know, you guys
on Twitter. It's okay that that just makes for the fun.
But that happened to me a lot during the Bachelor,
is that, like you said, the speakers would be for
the crowd and oftentimes somebody was a low talker, and
(31:57):
I couldn't hear, and I would miss little jabs and
little things, And you don't realize when you're in that moment.
It's just hard to pick things up in that audience
is loud and there's so much going on, and the
producers are talking in your ear, So there there is
a lot. I have a behind the scenes question though, Yeah,
so I love the show. Yes, it would have been
better if it were me taking off a pandahead this
(32:17):
year and just watching your reaction. But when you guys
are guessing, when the panel is guessing, who's who? Who
is it? Is that just you guys riffing? Are their
producers telling you? Because it cracks me up when you're like,
I think it's Barack Obama. I think it's Beyonce, Now
it's Bono those Obama is not going to be on
(32:40):
this show. Listen, if the producers were giving us, it's
us reaching when we really don't know or can't figure
out someone like those. A lot of times, when like
I can't remember that actress's name, I don't want to
butcher it right. I don't want to be a meme forever,
so you'll pull out a name that no one that
everybody knows that everybody that everybody like, is it Charlie
Throne therein? Damn it totally? And well, you know, Ken
(33:04):
Jong's got this whole thing now where he's just terrible
and it's works. You know, Well that's the thing. If
you're going to be so bad, you got to be consistent.
He can get away with it one hundred percent. Now,
mind you, I am very competitive, even though it's a
fluffy game show. I still like compete to get the
most right, Like we had golden ears that were given away, yes,
(33:25):
and I was like, what we're going to compete is
due who gets them? I mean, I'm literally out of
my mind. Are there any side bets going on with
the judges? No? They I think they've given up pretty
much because I'm really that good. You're just dominating. Well,
this is the thing. I'm sure those bozo's only read
Google alerts about themselves, where as me, I'm a pop
culture you know, the expert. I you know, just having
(33:48):
to do radio for seven years doing celebrity news, you
learn about everyone's dirt. So when there's clue packages going on,
I'm like, oh, I know, who got a divorce recently,
or I know who went through that traumatic thing. You
pick up on all those things, whereas they really only
know about themselves, which I like to make fun of
themselves for them. Speaking of your show, that's the last
time I saw you. I was trying to think the
last time we were together, and it was at your
(34:09):
show in New York at the XM Studios. It's been
a while since I've seen you pre COVID all those
crazy I know, so it's been a while, so it
almost seems like a blurry dream those years doesn't hit
missing you, and I always just speak so highly of
what an amazing person you have always been, and you're
always such a good supporter. I am gonna I'm gonna
(34:32):
do a little titbit of about you Tube for a second,
which was Chris came on on the view and I
think you're on for a whole week. I was, Yeah,
my daughter and I came out, but yeah, I co
hosted for a week for a week, and he was
so incredible. Of course, it's very good at what he does.
But we thought me and Cherry were like, oh my god,
we love him. We need to have him as the
first male co host on the view. So we went
(34:54):
to bat Me and Cherry were like, we do need
the first male calls. It's gotta be Chris. Gotta be Chris.
He's amazing and you we were so freaking good. It
was so great to have this male perspective. But you
did it so well, and I just feel like, now
looking back, it would have been the meanest thing. If
I've got you right, that would have been a special
kind of hell. You introduced me too. But you know
what's funny. I I came out there because so Barbara
(35:17):
Walters had this kind of go to executive producer Bill Getty,
and you know Bill. So Bill kind of ran the
view and he was the behind the scenes guy, and
then Barbara was there. So Barbara brought me in that
week to co host with you, thinking they were possibly
going to add a guy and that I might be
that person, and say they brought me in for the
week to kind of just try it out. And so
(35:38):
that actually was a topic of discussion for a little
time with Barbara and with Bill and this obviously before
Barbara left. It was so fun and it was fun
back then, you know, it really was fun back then. Yeah,
things got contentious but it remained fun and level headed exactly. Well.
The interesting thing is behind the scenes on that is
you know, when they hired me, they said, you know,
(36:00):
it was a little too polarizing this show. We want
to bring a pop culture person to make it light
and fluffy. Right, there's no one fluffier than myself. I
could like to fluff you are fluffy, you know, nothing
too serious and um. Within the first week of you know,
bring some pop cultures fun, Barbara was like, I miss fighting.
(36:21):
I missed the debate of politics, and they brought it
back in and I was After a week, I was like,
oh no, this is not it is not for me. Yeah,
this is not. I'm out the best thing you ever did.
Oh my god. It's you know, it's like I'm one
of those people that you know, um, you ever have
those like drunk relatives at the holidays and you kind
of get I have, like, you know, trauma. Being in
(36:44):
an Irish Catholic family from Chicago, there's always somebody that
you're just like and that's what you know, that kind
of fighting always made me feel like I have a
hard time watching shows that are you know, that kind
of brutal. But you watched and you one thing that
we had common. You watched The Bachelor and Bacherette back
in the day, and you were into that show, and
(37:05):
that those shows can give you that uncomfortable feeling. There's
that new show on Fox, Farmer Wants a Wife. I
know you love it. I do too, and I know
you watched it. There are those uncomfortable moments, but it's
somehow all out of love and so you don't feel
so bad. That is absolutely correct, you know. And it's
also you have a little bit of compassion for looking
(37:29):
at our youths, you know, looking at the younger generation
of like having to go through it, like you know,
that's easier than someone that's kind of being really vicious
and mean. And you got you got these farmers. This
guy's poor guys are like in the outskirts of nowhere,
and these women are coming in from Ellie'd be like you,
Jenny McCarthy rolling up to a ranch in her heels
(37:52):
like scoop and poop and bail and hay. I mean,
good luck. And guess what that farmer would have got
me because we have a ranch where we do all
that kind of stuff, and not necessarily we don't have
animals on it yet, but it's we love it. Like
the reason why I left La were two reasons. I
wanted my son to not be raised by a bunch
(38:13):
of crazy people in LA. There's just too much, you know,
it's chaotic. But also I was almost forty and still
looking for love, and I was like, you know, in
la Um, I just there were so many guys that
either if you're if you're forty in LA, you have
to date sixty because the forty year olds can date twenty. Right,
(38:35):
So I'm like, I don't want to slow down and
watch a reel of fortune, yet you know I want to.
I have so much in me still and the down
to earth feelings I got from Midwest guys. I'm like,
you know what, I'm going to go back home and
see if I can find somebody back there. So there
is something with this show that I feel like I
(38:56):
was trending way before the show, whereas like there's a
lot of people that are leaving the big s right,
you know, looking for love in and moving to these
world places. Well, the show has had such success, and
you know, in speaking of your success, and I love
the fact that you made a concerted effort to find love.
And that's and if you think, okay, this is v
(39:17):
Ginnie McCarthy, sex symbol, Playmate of the Year and she
left to make a real effort to find love. That
should tell everybody something that you make it a priority.
That's right, You absolutely make a priority. Not everyone could
pick up and leave, you know, their jobs, but I
mean I didn't have a job either. My agent was like,
you're what you're leaving, but you can make it a
(39:38):
priority wherever you are. I don't think you have to leave.
But to your point, to your credit, I love that.
And when you found Donnie, and this is what I'm
going to say, an underrated love story. The two of
you just man, y'all just fit. I love I love
you guys together, and I love what y'all have done.
(39:58):
And it's not that you're you know, you're prior relationships
were pretty public and you thought, okay, you know, Jenny
and Jim could work. They're cute. I see it. And
then when you see you and Donnie, you're like, oh,
that that works totally. You know, it's every day. We
still get butterflies. We talk about it, we text and
(40:19):
FaceTime at least, look, he just texts me right now,
I love you. It's constant. We FaceTime sleep together like
he's He literally reminds me of me. If there's such
thing as mirrors in relationships. Even my family and my
friends are like, oh my god. And it you know,
it took a long time. I remember putting it out
(40:39):
there to the universe saying, you know, okay, I'm done
having to cook anybody like. I don't want anyone medium, rareer.
I want them well done. They learn their lessons like
I've done the work here now. So the universe bring
me the level of vibration that I'm at because I
kept bringing guys in that I have to pull up
to my vibration I can make. I'm like I just
(41:02):
and he turned out to be everything. Speaking of farmer
once a wife, because those ladies are making a big
commitment to move. Donnie did that for you, right, he
moved to Chicago. I never I And by the way,
(41:25):
Chicago doesn't seem like that bad. But when you say
Saint Charles, Illinois, which is you know, we've got a
main street. It's mom and pop stores. He's an E's
Coast guy. He's a city guy. But when he came here.
He said, you know what, I've always fell in love
with the main street small town and he's like, Illinois
corn fields are different than you know, other kind of rulers,
(41:46):
but just corn everywhere. But he fell in love. He
literally I said, do you ever want to move? He said,
I can never. There's this there's this love. There's this
down to earth sensibility. You know what it is. We
live our life here. We don't work our life away.
We live our life interesting. It's so wonderful, feel like
what I get from the show. When I watched it too,
(42:08):
I was like, oh, just it. I have a feeling
those are going to be a lot of girls are
going to want to date farmers after this. Well, and
I to your point, I think it's important for the
woman or you know, I guess there's four. If they
end up with four, that will not be the square
peg in a round hole. Hopefully these farmers will see,
(42:28):
don't just get a city girl to get a city girl.
It's a girl that you don't need to, as you
put it, bake any further. Like she's actually willing and
ready and is a mirror image and ready to blend
into this life because you can get the opposite of that,
and it won't work. You know, it won't work real
quick because when you it's kind of like if you've
(42:50):
ever gone on vacation thinking it will destress your mind
and you realize, oh, my mind came with me, right,
you know, going to a small rural city, your mind
actually is louder. So if you haven't done the work
on yourself, those farmers are going to see a real
quick that they picked, you know, looks over love if
(43:11):
they don't pick right. You're also an amazing parent. And
lately you have been talking about twenty year old and
we both our kids are about the same age. I
have a twenty one year old nineteen year old Evans
what twenty twenty? Yeah, twenty it's crazy. And he's venturing
off into the world of music only one time so far,
(43:32):
but it is for love. For what he loves music
or he's using music to find love. He fell in love. Well,
this is the story and I'll make it quick. Yes,
his heart got broken by his girlfriend. His girlfriend him,
and so he was devastated and put and he's such
(43:53):
a big hearted, loving teddy bear. He mourned and put
all of his love into this love for his crush.
They's head Forever, which is Selena Gomez, and he wrote
these beautiful lyrics and he called me in the room
and he said, will you take a look at this
love song I wrote for Selena Gomez? And I'm like, oh,
that's those are nice little words. I love that. That
(44:13):
was very sweet, patted on the head and left. The
next thing I know, Johnny said, oh, I'm gonna have
him like sing to this song. And I'm like, really
he sings like me though, and he's like, He's like,
he sounds really good and those the words are sweet.
And the next thing I know, my ex husband who
(44:34):
shoots music videos, like, let me put a music video together.
And while we've got um, he posted his first song
called um it Doesn't Matter under Evan Asher, so if
you want to check it out. But Selena Gomez hasn't
contacted him yet, this is a great story to follow
up on. Oh God, and every single every two hours
(44:56):
he asked me if I've heard from Selena Gomez. That's funny. Well,
so I guess it begs the question then, because I
am in this camp too with my kids of how
far you go? Right? You want to help your kids.
You want to push their dreams and goals and all
those things, but there's a point where you could, you know,
get diminishing returns and you can almost hurt them at times.
(45:17):
And you know, Donnie obviously very well connected the music world.
You are connected in the media and so and it
sounds like your ex husband has jumped in. So that's
a lot you have to try and weigh. That was
that difficult for you, guys? No, because I know that
music isn't necessarily his passion. He loves He's in college
right now for videography. He does really good job with
(45:40):
his YouTube channel, Gaming USA, and he films. He loves
filming that whenever I see a spark in him, I
will put everything I've got behind it. Yeah, this was
a family affair to help heal someone's heart. You know,
this is this is more or less why we all
came to there's a family because my stepson, his stepbrother.
(46:03):
I wrote the melody, the music to it, and so
it was a family affair of just you know, making
even feel better and wanting him to send a song
to his crush. This is like the new age dysfunctional
Partridge family completely And you know, It takes a lot
for me not to just like call her agent or
publicist to say, how don't you just so it's you know,
(46:24):
I'm not like pounding social media yet. Yeah, but I'm like,
let's just give it a few weeks of let's give
it like a good month and see if you can
just do this and reach out and you know, maybe
you'll get a follow or maybe you'll just get a heart.
It sounds like you are in a wonderful place in life.
You just seem like you have this balance. This even
(46:46):
this about you is that accurate? That is one hundred
percent accurate. I'm so grateful every day. I'm like, I'm
so grateful. I love I love myself, I love my family.
I'm grateful for health, I'm grateful for my job. It's
just I'm really at that place. And it took a
lot of work because there's been a lot of a
lot of crap in my life that I have put
up with. But it's you know, it's not how you
(47:08):
get knocked down, it's how you get up. And I
just keep getting up. Yeah, I was tell my kids,
it's a roller coaster ride. It's not just this simple
straight ascent that life doesn't treat you like that. It's true,
and you know, and you get your feelings hurt. And
the thing is, you don't run away and quit. You
just get up and keep going. And I felt like
I'm always going to be a juggernaut. You know, I'm
(47:29):
just gonna just keep Oh you don't want me, I'm
going I'm find someone that does. I'm gonna keep going.
You know, it's been thirty years in this business. You
know when I've read numerous Oh, her fifteen minutes are up,
her fifteen minutes are up. Well, I'm still here. I'm
not betting against you, thanks Chriss. I'm still leading at Wahlburger's.
Damn it. By the way, I when I was shooting
(47:51):
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In Vegas? I would
we would shoot. I would stay at Caesar's. But it's
behind it's actually kind of in front of balleys, and
we've shot behind ballot, we shoot into the night. We'd
get done inevitably on our way home, it's like, well,
there's Wallburgers. We'd stop grab a burger. And by the way,
it's a good burger. It's a good burg I'm gonna
give it a little promo Wallburgers. Yeah, it's a good burger.
(48:14):
Tell Donnie, I'm giving. I'm a plug. I totally will to.
Speaking of plugs, I do want to ask you a
question about the Farmer Show, Jennifer. What do you think
of her as a host? I spoke to Jennifer, and uh,
she's going to be on one of the shows this
week as well. She was great, I was, I thought,
and I told her this, it's easy. It's easy to
look like a fish out of water in those moments
(48:37):
you get the country singer. I get it, it's a
country show, but it's not that simple to blend in.
I think she did a great job. I told her,
I want more nettles. They didn't give me enough. They
didn't give me enough. She came on screen, so she is,
by the way, lovable, likable, all those things. But sometimes
you don't read that on screen. Yeah, you absolutely do.
(48:57):
Like the fact everyone was excited to see her. I mean,
she's one of those people. It's like, I'd love to
meet someone that doesn't love Jennifer Nows because because then
she's just someone who hates puppies. I mean, how do
you not trite Jennifer Neddles. She was She was great
and she is lovely. She's talented as can be. But
I told her it is not an easy thing just
because you're a country girl to come on a country show.
(49:17):
She she did it. She did it very well. She's
talented and you know what she really is. You know
what's interesting, Chris With these dating shows too, it's like,
in the beginning, you see these farmers like, oh my god,
I get be doing all these girls. Oh my god,
with all these girls was so much fun. But then
you see that turn when it gets hard to let
people go, and that's you know, it's a very humbling
(49:38):
moment for to watch. Well, we used to tell The Bachelor,
it's like, yeah, you're all excited, you're dating thirty girls.
That means you're breaking up with twenty nine people. That's
that's that's what's going to happen. And remember you're only
going home with one, so everybody else here you're gonna
have to say goodbye to and break their heart or
be dumped by them. And that's exactly. I like the
(49:59):
girl that in the first episode where the farmer's like, hey,
I'd love for you to stay on my farm and
She's like, yeah, no, I'm going back to New York right,
good for you. Well, the one thing I do love
too is like they've got the farmers and they've got
the girls, and it's like a two way street. So
the girls get to look at the farmers and go,
I'm more into you than you. Yeah, you know. So
they get to kind of choose who they want, and
(50:19):
then the farmers counter near it down. From there they
decide where they're going to Cowboy up right and the
girl there's a girl. I want you guys to keep
up Cassidy Joe. I got a kick out of her
Last bunks Bunk, Cassie Joe, Last bunk, Yeah, Cassie Joe,
speaking of spunk, You're just the best, and I so
appreciate you coming on. I've missed you. Our paths across
(50:42):
many times in this business, and I've loved every moment
we've had a chance to work together, beside each other,
beyond each other's shows. You're just one of those people
in life. Every time I get to bump into I'm
so happy you too. I hope you know that I
mean that, And I'm always like I want to do
something now. Chris he's so talented and so down to earth.
We just we must have been related in another life
because it's just too easy. It is. It's been phenomenal.
(51:04):
I'm glad we've had the chance to work to you,
and I'm so excited by the way the ratings are
crushing it again for massing Or. I was really nervously
looking at it because I knew you were going to
be on the show and I'm like, Okay, I hope
the premier is big, and it did. It premiered huge again,
and we've got great theme nights, you guys. The theme
nights are out of this world this season. Jennifer's on right,
Jennifer Nettles is a guest panel She's a guest panelist
(51:26):
this season. And we've got the like eighties themes, DC Heroes,
Sesame Street, and New York Theme is this week, so
you may check it out because it's really really fun. Well,
the only thing that would have made it worse is
if I had been there taking off the awesol lot head. Oh,
I hope you do come one season in the future.
Never know, you never know. I do know this. I
(51:46):
appreciate you and thank you so much for being on
the show of course, of course, thank you so much.
I'll talk to you soon, my friend, you got it
by hunt My thanks to Jenny McCarthy. Just one of
those people that I have been blessed to get to
know in my career and just love her to death.
Just always positive, always a pleasant person to be around
(52:09):
and work with. And now that she's gone, I want
to give her a shameless plug because she has a
new line, a lip gloss line called Formless Beauty. If
you want to check it out, go to formless Beauty
dot com. And pretty interesting about the mass singer, and
it was funny. I hadn't even thought about being offered
that till she was coming on the show, and it
raises the question would I ever do it? I'll never sing,
(52:31):
never to anything. I love music. I do love to sing.
I'm not great at it, but I can get through it.
Like anything. The timing has to be right, so we
will see. Maybe I'll be taking off that panda head someday.
But thanks for joining us today, and thanks to my
guest Jenny McCarthy. Just the best, and you are the best.
(52:53):
I appreciate you being with me each and every week
here on the most dramatic podcast ever. I will see
you next time because we have a lot more to
talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at
the most Dramatic pod Ever, and make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk
to you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Zima
Chris Harrison
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.