When Americans watch television, they can’t miss the talent and reach of Tyra Banks. In 2003, Banks became a true pioneer in reality TV when she created, executive produced, and hosted the tremendously successful “America’s Next Top Model.” The show quickly became a phenomenon and was UPN’s most-watched program for six seasons.
With the launch of her syndicated daily talk show “The Tyra Banks Show,” Banks became one of the few women to be seen regularly on both daytime and primetime television. Premiered in 2005, the talk show quickly became one of the most popular new daytime programs on the air, and continues to boast the youngest audience in daytime.
On November 22, 2006, Clay Aiken was a guest on the Tyra Banks Show. It was a huge hit with the television audience and the live audience reported that it was one of the best shows they had ever seen.
The live audience saw Clay sing at the beginning of the show. He first sang “A Thousand Days.” Then, after a quick set change, he sang “Mary, Did You Know” that would be used on another show.
According to reports from audience members, the director planned on taping 2 segments of Clay and Tyra. However, the two stars just had so much fun together that they just kept filming.
More and more people from backstage filtered in to watch and listen as the show went on and on. The serious man who held the cue cards began to laugh… a lot. Two of the cameramen were grinning ear-to-ear the entire show. The young director talked and laughed with Clay during the breaks. They all seemed to be having a great time.
During one of the breaks, Quiana came out onto the set and stood behind the couch talking to Clay. Clay turned to the audience and told the story of how Quiana had beaten him in his first AI audition. He said he wished they could hear her sing. Quiana acted rather shy and started to leave. The warmup man gave chase and dragged her back out and gave her a microphone. Clay said to Tyra, “If I get her to sing, will you tell her about your hair weave?” Tyra agreed. Quiana then blew away the place with “I Will Always Love You.” The warmup guy commented about what kind of a guy Clay was and how rare it was to see a big star do something like that. He later said Clay was the best interview they had ever had.
Fortunately, we have videos of the show. We don’t get to see the fun backstage antics, but we can see how relaxed Clay and Tyra were as they talked to each other.
If you watch the videos, you will see talk about Clay’s changing looks, his allergies and even a short segment when Clay interviewed Tyra. Oh yes, even a small kiss!!
The three videos take a bit more than 30 minutes, but they are so worth it. We can all hope that there will be another fun interview with these two good friends.