Interview With Nate Berkus of "Oprah's Big Give"

AE: What would you say is the most significant reason people should watch The Big Give? What are they going to get out of it?
NB: I think what’s so beautiful about the show is that, obviously it’s entertainment, but I think the that takeaway from this show, and it fills it every week, is that it really gets people thinking creatively about what I like to call being a citizen of the world. You can be a citizen in the world from your sofa. You don’t have to be an international traveler. And how I define that is just sort of opening up your mind and your own personal experience to include other people and we’re already seeing it happen.

People are throwing Big Give parties on Sunday nights around the country. I just went with The Oprah Winfrey Show to surprise a woman in Indiana who wants to help a girl that she went to high school with whose home was destroyed in a fire. That’s the kind of thing we were hoping Oprah’s Big Give would generate and that’s exactly what it’s doing. So, that’s what I think is so wonderful about it. It’s allowing people to step outside of themselves and just think about how life for someone else and someone they know very closely may be vastly improved with some time and effort.

AE: Is it hard emotionally? Watching the first episode I was quite moved several times hearing these heartbreaking stories. With your getting involved with these people week after week, does it feel like life’s a vale of tears and there’s just so much misery out there?
NB: It’s not intervention. It is an extremely moving experience, but it’s also a very uplifting experience. You kind of face what you fear in life and you end up being a person that you hoped to be or keep striving towards that.

AE: Okay, time for a fun question. Which reality show would we be more likely to find you watching: Survivor, American Idol or Project Runway?
NB: Oh, it would be like American Idol and Project Runway on a split-screen.

AE: Did you think Christian Siriano was the right winner?
NB: You know, I didn’t watch the show that closely to comment on that, but I think he’s very talented.

AE: Which drama: Brothers & Sisters, Law and Order or Ugly Betty?
NB: Brothers & Sisters.

AE: Final question because I know you have to go: Hillary, Barack or McCain?
NB: Barack, baby!

Oprah's Big Give airs Sundays on ABC at 9 p.m.