Justin Guarini: From American Idol to Idol Tonight
Ed Martin, Ed Martin's Watercooler TV
MediaVillage.com, May 25, 2007
http://blogs.mediavillage.com/ed_martin/archives/2007/05/justin_guarini.html#more

"You never get disconnected from American Idol, and anybody who wants to be disconnected from it -- especially anybody who made it to the finals -- I don't see the sense in that, you know?" That's how Season One runner-up Justin Guarini feels about the show that made him a household name back in 2002. "It's an amazing show," he says. "Every single year it dominates the ratings. Every single year all of us, no matter where we finished, get some sort of boost in our work from it."

Justin should know. Five years after his time in the Idol spotlight his work has once again been boosted by that formidable franchise, this time as a correspondent on the popular TV Guide Channel series Idol Tonight. He joined returning co-hosts Kimberly Caldwell (also an Idol veteran, from Season Two) and Rosanna Tavarez earlier this year when the show began its second season.

"I was a guest last season," Justin told me Thursday afternoon as he prepared to tape the final Idol Tonight of the season, an expanded two-hour edition devoted to the previous night's Idol finale. He credits that guest appearance with sparking the idea of his joining the show full time. "They called me up and said, 'We're thinking about adding someone to the show this season. Would you like to do it?' I said, 'Of course!' I know Kimberly and Rosanna. We're very friendly outside of work. It makes sense for us to be working together."

As a crowd of fans and curious tourists assembled around the outdoor Idol Tonight stage, Justin reflected on the success of the show these last few months. "It feels really good," he said. "We've accomplished a lot this season. The ratings doubled from last year. We have a very strong following. The show is fun. It took on a whole new dynamic with three people, and I'm just really proud that I could contribute to TV Guide Channel."

Echoing the sentiments of virtually everyone who has worked on or with American Idol, Justin added with a laugh, "We're happy to be through the Idol season, you know?"

Asked if he'll continue to appear on the network in other capacities until the next season of Idol Tonight begins in 2008 he replied, "We're having meetings about that now. They want me to come back and do special correspondent things and press junkets. I'm really fortunate that they like what I'm doing."

Justin said his ease in front of the camera can be traced to the work his mother did when he was a child. "I'm used to the cameras, because when I was growing up, my mother, Kathy Pepino was one of the first 200 people to start up CNN," he explained. "She was an anchorwoman. She did all the news desk stuff. I would always wake up in the makeup room on a cot, I'm so used to being around cameras and hangin' out and doin' this stuff. Added to my American Idol experience and everything else that I've done on television, [hosting a show] makes sense. It's easy and fun."

Well, maybe not so easy during Idol finale week. In addition to his role on Idol Tonight, Justin has been getting out of bed at 3 a.m. the last couple of days to do early morning interviews in the Fox Affiliates Cage, a production area set up in the middle of the H&H complex that provides hundreds of interviews with past and present Idol finalists to Fox affiliates all over the country, including early morning news programs on the east coast. He's tired today. "I was up at 3 a.m. to do all this stuff and I stayed up last night until 1," he said. But he's not complaining.

"That's the Idol schedule," he laughed. "It's nothing that I haven't done, or that the contestants don't do every single year. I don't think people understand how grueling being a finalist can be."

That's especially true for the top two in the season finales. Hours after Kelly Clarkson was named the first American Idol, Justin was on a flight with her to New York to perform on the Today show the next morning. "That's what we did," Justin recalled. "We went together." The demands of the final competition and the season finale extravaganza took their toll on Kelly. When they got to New York, "she couldn't sing," he said. "They wanted me to sing, but I refused, because it was Kelly's day. It gets to a point where you are physically and emotionally drained after that finale."

There has been much talk here this week about the exceedingly close friendship between brand new Idol winner Jordin Sparks and runner-up Blake Lewis. Justin can relate. "You can't help but be that close," he asserted. "You spend so much time with the contestants they become family. When you get to the top two you're doing so much work together it's like you have to band together to keep sane. You really do. So I'm not surprised by Blake and Jordin's friendship. It's what Kelly and I had. It's what I'm sure every final two have had."

Justin said he has stayed "in touch" with Kelly, but not with the other eight singers in the Season One top ten. "I see more of Season Two every single day," he continued, gesturing toward co-host Kimberly. Still, he noted that he sometimes sees other Idol veterans at different industry events. "It's like being part of a really cool exclusive club. With anyone who has been on Idol, even if you never met them before, there's that common experience that you can share."

Having been there at the beginning, before Idol became a media powerhouse, Justin described its subsequent meteoric rise as "a spark in a dry batch of timber. I think taking anyone from Anytown, USA and then giving America the choice to make them a superstar or not is a powerful combination that made a phenomenal television show."