So that was the Oscars! I feel shattered. What a night! I don't think the gravity of what we were about to do really hit me until we were literally 10 seconds away from going live on the red carpet for the biggest event in the Hollywood calendar.
It was the first time I had ever hosted anything like this. I've done live shows for years and my fair share of high-profile events, but what we did today was unprecedented. Normally, when we're shooting a red carpet event things move pretty fluidly, and if they're not you always have the ability to shut off the cameras and stop recording even if it's just for a moment. But not tonight! Tonight wasn't just any red carpet event, this was the Oscars and tonight we were going live for an hour with no commercials.
After all, when you're live, you're live. So basically, it came down to this. Even if no one stopped to talk to us, I was going to have to fill 60-minutes of airtime with something. So we walked out to the red carpet to take our positions about 30-minutes before we were going live and I must admit, I had my fingers crossed that everything went smoothly. No teleprompter, no script, no pre-booked interviews -- the pressure was on...and strangely, I was looking forward to it.
The countdown had begun, and within moments we were well and truly into the show. Our first guest took longer that expected, but for Jessica Alba I'll wait for as long as it takes. Looking stunning (and very pregnant) Jessica came over all smiles (the last time I saw her was at the MTV Movie Awards last year). As pleasant as always and surprisingly pretty happy to talk about her pregnancy, Jessica hinted that the baby might be here "sooner rather than later."
Then, a little bit after came Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, John Travolta, Patrick Dempsey, The Rock and of course, the man himself, George Clooney. George was actually the only person I saw doing just about every single interview (about 100 in total, believe it or not) and even when he finally made his way to our platform George was still all smiles and jokes as he spoke on his dislike for Daniel Day-Lewis (he was joking around, of course) and at the very end even pointed out that he can't even go swimming at his home anymore because of the helicopters constantly circling. Why? Because his neighbor is a paparazzi-favourite: Britney Spears. Only in Hollwood, I guess!
When we first decided to come out and be part of the Oscars (the first time MTV News has been at the event in almost a decade) and shoot a live preshow we decided from the very beginning we had to do it differently than anyone else. We never wanted to do a clean, polished and perfect preshow. Instead, we wanted to give everyone watching a real inside look and above all, capture the true feeling as to what it's like on the Oscars red carpet. The Oscars carpet is manic, intense, chaotic, fun and surreal -- so hopefully that's what we managed to do. It was kind of an experiment, and one that I hope we try again very soon.
I'd like to thank my producers Ryan and Vanessa, the MTV family here in LA and back home in NY, my mom, my inspiration Regis Philbin and of course, Britney Spears! That's my Oscar-style acceptance speech!
To watch more of Tim's interviews, including chats with stars Steve Carell, John Travolta, P. Diddy and more, click here! But wait...check out Tim's behind-the-scenes look at the Oscars madness with his video diary here!em>
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