Technician: When did you decide to campaign to get your own show on the OWN Network?

Bascombe: I actually heard about this show through one of my fraternity brothers. He was like, ‘Korn, guess what? Oprah’s about to have her own competition to have your own talk show.’ I was like, ‘oh, shoot.’ People have been like, ‘Kornelius, you should have your own talk show. You’re outrageous, you’re crazy and you’re very funny, but at the same time people admire you around campus and people admire your opinions about different subjects.’ So I was like, ‘that sounds like I could do my own talk show.’ We took about three or four days – and it’s crunch time because the earlier you put your video up, the more time you have to get votes. The competition started May 15 and I heard about it around May 23 and I did my video around May 29. So it was a really quick turnaround time. I put my video up and then went around, talking to different people. From there, we put it up and tried to get all my friends to vote. We put it on Facebook, we put it on Twitter.

Technician: What is your vision for the show? What do you want your show to be about?

Bascombe: It’s aimed at children. One show will be about helping young middle school and high school students understand what it means to go to college. For one episode the show will talk about obesity and how you can stay in shape a nd the steps you need to take so when you get into college, you’ll be well prepared to l ive on your own. By the time they finish watching my show, I want to make sure that they have learned something new that they can take back to their home and back to their families, their friends and their relatives and say ‘this is what Korn said on his show and this is how it’s impacted my life.’ I want you to be like ‘wow, I learned something new from Korn and I really think I can help.’ It’s not just about the youth. I want my mom to sit down in front of the TV and learn about social media and learn about what’s going on in college and what’s different from being on Facebook and Twitter and all those different social medias. I think that’s something a lot of people don’t know about. Empowering people is another thing. Empowering people in our culture and making sure people work through, and make sure they have changed someone’s life from watching this show.

Technician: Is there one thing you think will make your show different, or set yours apart from others?

Bascombe: I have a way of getting my voice across and getting my vision across to people but like in a fiery kind of way. What’s going to make this show different is we’re not going to always be sitting with a studio audience; we might be at a college campus talking to a group of students. I want to take it and make it a good entertaining show where we have some comedy in there, but at the same time, we know when to be serious. Because ultimately us college students (or anybody who’s young), we like to know what’s going on with the community, but at the same time we want comedy in our life. We want to know what’s funny and we want to be able to laugh at the same time.

Technician: What are you currently working on? What stage is it in, or is it in a waitand- see-thing?

Bascombe: I’m in the semifinal stage right now, with the top number of votes as far as the video itself. Technician: So there are 30 candidates left and four will win? Bascombe: There’s a total of about 40 candidates together. The top five are guaranteed a spot in the semi-final stage, and then there are 35 others who have other online videos. I’ve passed that stage and now I’m waiting to hear back to see if I’ve made it to the reality TV stage.

Technician: So you are one stage from having your show aired?

Bascombe: Yeah, I’m pretty much one step away. Basically, they’ll go through it and I’ll sit here until late October to see if I’ve made it to the next round. I really can’t tell you much about it; that’s all I know right now. I’m one step away from being a finalist.

Technician: If and when you win, how are you going to proceed?

Bascombe: I don’t know. It’s going to be so overwhelming because I got so much support from N.C. State students and so much support from my family and friends and just regular people around Raleigh. I’m going to stay in college, so I’m going to be living, enjoying my life here at N.C. State, pursuing my actual career. I’m going to make sure my time here at N.C. State is going to be making a college show that’s excellent, to make sure students are interested, what they like on campus, who they want me to talk to, what are student voices and stuff like that. That’s what I’m still going to do if I don’t win, but if I do win then it’s going to be awesome. I’m going to make sure I put N.C. State on the map and show everyone I deserved to win.

Technician: If you win you’ll have to take some time off of school obviously.

Bascombe: Yeah. Definitely.

Technician: Have you met Oprah yet, or at what stage do you get to meet her?

Bascombe: I have not met Oprah yet. I’ve only met the casting director, the producers, but not Oprah. That’s actually something I’m looking forward to. Hopefully, they’ll give me a chance to meet Oprah—that would be awesome.

Technician: Is there anything you wanted to add?

Bascombe: Being a student at State, being a student in college, we’re all together trying to figure out what to do or what we’re interested in. I think the purpose of college is to really figure out your niche and I think I found it by interacting with different organizations and different people on campus. I really want to give a shout-out to N.C. State for giving me the opportunity to find my niche and something I’m actually interested in life.