Nate Berkus Begins New Talk Show on Monday
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Nate Berkus is ready to go in his new weekday talk show, which centers around "well living."
"The Nate Berkus Show," which premieres Monday in syndication, comes after an eight-year recurring run with the queen of daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey, on whose show he made dozens of guest appearances as her designated design expert.
Berkus believes that transforming your physical surroundings is a way to change your personal story. He likes stories of self-realization as much as he likes the furniture and window treatments that get you there.
"I'm as passionate about design as people who watched me on 'Oprah' for all these years think I am. But the focus of my show is living well," says Berkus, munching a salad during a backstage interview between tapings. "We want the viewer left with something they didn't know, after every show. And also to have a good time."
The show won't be particularly celebrity-driven, Berkus says, but celebs are welcome "who will have something to say, something to share. I want to see a side of them that works for my show."Examples: Julianne Moore, who "is totally passionate about design." And Jamie Lee Curtis, "an organizational expert" whose home "looks like a Virgo's fantasy!"
On Friday of premiere week, Berkus' guest is Elizabeth Edwards.
Growing up in suburban Minneapolis, he was a youngster who preferred finding bargains at flea markets to loitering in left field for nine innings, a kid who pressed his chums into helping rearrange his bedroom layout when they came for a sleepover.At 24, he formed the Chicago-based Nate Berkus Associates design firm. Then, a few years later, a chance meeting with a producer from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" led to an assignment to make over a tiny residential space for a segment on her program.
Soon, he was not only an acclaimed designer, but also a TV star.
Then tragedy struck. He and his partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea, were vacationing in Sri Lanka on Dec. 26, 2004, when the tsunami that killed more than 200,000 washed away their hut.
Three weeks later, the bereaved Berkus appeared on "Oprah Winfrey" to tell of losing his partner and to appeal for donations to rebuild the devastated village they had been visiting. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from viewers. "That was the moment of crystallization for me about the power of TV," he says.
Now he's eager to harness that power on his new TV series, though he's beginning to appreciate the difference between being a guest on someone else's show and hosting your own.
"Already for me," he says, "it's been a process of self-discovery."