Playing Cupid: What;s a nice guy from Nebraska doing on reality dating show?
By Bruce R. Miller, Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, August 15, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- If you're ever in Omaha and a woman pulls you over and asks you to meet her son, you've probably encountered Brian McFayden's mom.
"My mom is my biggest fan," the former MTV newsman says. "Ever since I started with MTV, she took me to the drug store, to the butcher, to the supermarket just to meet her friends."
Now that he's on CBS' "Cupid," McFayden has become an even bigger thing with the folks back in Nebraska. "It's a whole new audience," he says. "Now, I'm reaching the parents."
So what, then, is an MTV guy doing on CBS?
"They're trying to target a younger audience," he says of "Cupid," the dating show created by "American Idol's" Simon Cowell. "That's one of the reasons they brought me in."
A regular on MTV's "TRL," the afternoon music show, McFayden realized it was time to switch gears when the music changed from rock to bubblegum and the fans got progressively younger. "You start talking to the kids in the crowd and they look up at you, bright-eyed and beautiful and then they smile and all of a sudden you see braces. That's when you know you're getting too old for this stuff."
But CBS? "It's a huge generational leap from one to the other, but it's a whole new challenge for me."
For McFayden, a graduate of Omaha's Ralston High School, "Cupid" is a step closer to his acting/hosting goals. "What I want," he says with a smile, "is a big fat contract. I want to entertain. I've always been that guy who likes to be in front of other people...even when I was a kid."
When he graduated 10 years ago, McFayden was voted "most likely to be on the cover of GQ magazine." "Someone else got 'most likely to be on MTV.' "
Time at the University of Nebraska prompted him to believe if he didn't exit Nebraska before he got into his 20s, he'd never leave. He switched to Brown Institute in Minneapolis (in order to get a broadcasting certificate), landed on a Minneapolis radio station and watched as one connection led to another. A program director in New York heard him and offered him a job at KROCK where he was known as the "altar boy." "We did nights in New York for three years and then MTV picked me up."
The trick? "Being in the right place at the right time," McFayden says. In addition to "TRL," the Carson Daly show, McFayden did news for the network and honed his on-camera skills. Pre-teen girls screaming in his ears, however, convinced him it wasn't the job of a lifetime.
He did a beauty pageant for CBS (which is part of the same company as MTV), some guest acting gigs on shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Sabrina the Teen-age Witch," and got a reputation as a man able to react on his feet. Enter: "Cupid," a live dating show that lets two friends help a woman pick the right man.
"I don't like reality dating shows," McFayden admits. "'Cupid' is the antithesis of all dating game shows trying to find love and blah, blah, blah. This is actually taking a real slant on trying to find someone. You've got to deal with not only that one person, but also her friends. In Simon's crazy mind, he found a way to make that work in America."
McFayden doubts he could ever be a contestant on a TV dating show. "I could never air my dirty laundry. We've all got bones in our closets and that's the last thing I want to bring out."
Still, mom's not afraid to tell Bob the butcher what's going on in her son's life.
This year, McFayden says, his high school class is supposed to have its 10-year reunion. He wants to go "and show up in a 1974 Gremlin."
"Cupid" duties, however, could prevent that.
The next best thing? "My best friend from high school just came up and visited me last week. We never really talked about what I do. We just reminisced about the good old times. That's what's good about being from Nebraska. People there could give two (expletive) about what you do in Hollywood."
"My mom is my biggest fan," the former MTV newsman says. "Ever since I started with MTV, she took me to the drug store, to the butcher, to the supermarket just to meet her friends."
Now that he's on CBS' "Cupid," McFayden has become an even bigger thing with the folks back in Nebraska. "It's a whole new audience," he says. "Now, I'm reaching the parents."
So what, then, is an MTV guy doing on CBS?
"They're trying to target a younger audience," he says of "Cupid," the dating show created by "American Idol's" Simon Cowell. "That's one of the reasons they brought me in."
A regular on MTV's "TRL," the afternoon music show, McFayden realized it was time to switch gears when the music changed from rock to bubblegum and the fans got progressively younger. "You start talking to the kids in the crowd and they look up at you, bright-eyed and beautiful and then they smile and all of a sudden you see braces. That's when you know you're getting too old for this stuff."
But CBS? "It's a huge generational leap from one to the other, but it's a whole new challenge for me."
For McFayden, a graduate of Omaha's Ralston High School, "Cupid" is a step closer to his acting/hosting goals. "What I want," he says with a smile, "is a big fat contract. I want to entertain. I've always been that guy who likes to be in front of other people...even when I was a kid."
When he graduated 10 years ago, McFayden was voted "most likely to be on the cover of GQ magazine." "Someone else got 'most likely to be on MTV.' "
Time at the University of Nebraska prompted him to believe if he didn't exit Nebraska before he got into his 20s, he'd never leave. He switched to Brown Institute in Minneapolis (in order to get a broadcasting certificate), landed on a Minneapolis radio station and watched as one connection led to another. A program director in New York heard him and offered him a job at KROCK where he was known as the "altar boy." "We did nights in New York for three years and then MTV picked me up."
The trick? "Being in the right place at the right time," McFayden says. In addition to "TRL," the Carson Daly show, McFayden did news for the network and honed his on-camera skills. Pre-teen girls screaming in his ears, however, convinced him it wasn't the job of a lifetime.
He did a beauty pageant for CBS (which is part of the same company as MTV), some guest acting gigs on shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Sabrina the Teen-age Witch," and got a reputation as a man able to react on his feet. Enter: "Cupid," a live dating show that lets two friends help a woman pick the right man.
"I don't like reality dating shows," McFayden admits. "'Cupid' is the antithesis of all dating game shows trying to find love and blah, blah, blah. This is actually taking a real slant on trying to find someone. You've got to deal with not only that one person, but also her friends. In Simon's crazy mind, he found a way to make that work in America."
McFayden doubts he could ever be a contestant on a TV dating show. "I could never air my dirty laundry. We've all got bones in our closets and that's the last thing I want to bring out."
Still, mom's not afraid to tell Bob the butcher what's going on in her son's life.
This year, McFayden says, his high school class is supposed to have its 10-year reunion. He wants to go "and show up in a 1974 Gremlin."
"Cupid" duties, however, could prevent that.
The next best thing? "My best friend from high school just came up and visited me last week. We never really talked about what I do. We just reminisced about the good old times. That's what's good about being from Nebraska. People there could give two (expletive) about what you do in Hollywood."
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