Jeremy Lent Photo
In a season when other public figures are running for statewide government office, New Haven native Veronica Douglas-Givan has mounted a spirited campaign for a national perch of a different sort: a television talk show.
Douglas-Givan (at left in photo), who worked at WTNH Channel 8 from 1991 to 2008, has launched an online candidacy for a spot on the upcoming reality TV show “Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”. The show’s ten contestants will be selected partly based on the number of votes they receive for their three-minute online audition videos.
Douglas-Givan brought her campaign back to WTNH’s studios this week when she sat down with Desiree Fontaine (at right), host of Channel 8’s “Connecticut Style,” to tell Connecticut viewers about her candidacy.
Douglas-Givan ended her Channel 8 appearance with an appeal to the station’s viewership: “You tell me you want me to have my own show, you tell me you miss me — so go to veronicadouglas.com and vote, vote, vote!” (Click here to view Douglas-Givan’s audition video.)
This was Douglas-Givan’s first chance to reach out to Connecticut viewers since 2008, when she left WTNH to become head spokesperson for Bridgeport’s public schools. She had been the host since 2000 of “Wednesday’s Child,” a Channel 8 segment about Connecticut children waiting for foster care or adoption.
“I wanted to take my PR skills to another level,” Douglas-Givan said about her move to Bridgeport. “But my opportunity to step back from the [TV] business has reminded me of how much I love it.”
Former WTNH co-workers like longtime anchor Keith Kountz (at right in photo) stopped Douglas-Givan at nearly every step during her Wednesday visit for a hug and a chat. The studio that “Connecticut Style” now occupies is the same one that Douglas-Givan worked in as an intern for the Sally Jessy Raphael Show in the 1990s. And “Connecticut Style”‘s guest chef on Wednesday, Darlene Banks, happened to be an intern for Douglas-Givan years ago at WTNH.
In an interview after the filming, Douglas-Givan said that if she wins the talk show competition (a daunting task perhaps, given that nearly 4,000 contestants have already posted audition videos), she would fill her on-air time with “stories about people overcoming odds — stories about healing and forgiveness.” She pointed to her own story as an example: In 2004, Douglas-Givan reconnected with her biological father (shortly before his death, although neither of them knew it was imminent) to say that she had forgiven him for abandoning her as a child, and to renew their relationship.
She dreamed of being a TV personality from an early age. “I’ve always understood how powerful this [television] medium was,” she said. “I would sit at the kitchen table in my house on Winchester Avenue in Newhallville, or stand in front of the mirror with a hairbrush for a microphone, and ‘play TV,’” imitating hosts like ABC’s Diane Sawyer.
Despite being an early spotlight-grabber, Douglas-Givan mostly stayed behind the scenes during her years at WTNH, helping to produce telethons, public service announcements and news segments. However, her eight years as the host of “Wednesday’s Child” clearly left an impression on some of her viewers: Soon after Oprah Winfrey’s May 14 casting call for audition videos, Douglas-Givan got a flood of emails and phone calls from former interviewees and people who had adopted children through “Wednesday’s Child,” as well as from family and friends. All encouraged her to join the competition.
It was a continuation, she said, of all the times during her years as a WTNH producer when people asked, “‘Why aren’t you in front of the camera? You really connect with people.’”
“And you never know: Maybe the [Oprah Winfrey Network] producers would let me do the show right here,” Douglas-Givan said, pointing to her old studio. In any event, Douglas-Givan promised that her first act as America’s next talk show host would be to throw a giant party — on the New Haven Green.