Over 15,000 People Auditioned to be one of ten contestants on the new reality show, “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”. The show that will air on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) in January 2011 attracted Over 143 Million Votes during the 7 Week Online Contest and 8 finalists have been selected to go to the next stage of the competition. At least one of the top five from the online popular vote is guaranteed a spot among the 10 on the series.
When auditions closed June 26, 2010, there were more than 9,500 online videos and more than 6,100 contestants who came to open casting calls in New Jersey, Texas, California and Georgia. Over 143 million votes were cast online and the results were carefully verified by a third party before the winners of the online competition were announced.
Originally only five finalists were to be selected but due to the overwhelming response, OWN has decided to select the next three vote getters to join the other finalists at the final auditions in Los Angeles. The online finalists, in order of verified vote count, are:
- Jacqueline Wattimo of Waterton, MA with 9,360,096 votes.
- Dr. Phyllis Tucker-Wicks of Tampa, FL with 8,453,803 votes.
- Stacia Pierce of East Lansing, MI with 7,604,501 votes.
- Kornelius Bascombe of Raleigh, NC with 5,856,075 votes.
- Dr. Tony Roach of Abilene, TX with 3,842,648 votes.
- Maria Holloway of Miami, FL with 3,796,219 votes.
- Zach Anner of Austin, TX with 3,484,018 votes.
- Jasbina Ahluwalia of Oak Brook, IL with 2,728,232 votes.
Contestants selected to appear on the show in January will be one step away from living out their dreams. Challenges will range from booking interviews and researching story ideas, to successfully completing an actual screen test. The person selected to be the winner will receive a 6-episode commitment for his or her own show, executive produced by Mark Burnett, and scheduled to premiere on OWN in 2011.
Editor-In-Chief, Stephanie Penn-Danforth -- Daily Venus Diva.
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