The prize package contains the following items:
v 1 GREEK t-shirt
v 5 GREEK posters
v 1 ABC Family hat
v 1 ABC Family USB card reader
By Kenn Gold
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Jason Stephens, 27, of Utica, attended Utica College of Syracuse University and majored in Business Management and Marketing. His user name is ChiKappaDelta.
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On the heels of the success of ABC Family’s original series GREEK, which became the network’s highest rated original series ever in the 18 to 34 age group, the channel's social networking site virtualrush.com premiered on, October 22. RUSH’D is an online reality show about six finalists selected from Virtual Rush 10 Week Challenge Contest that ran during the first 10-episodes of “Greek” this past summer. Virtualrush.com documents the audition experience of the six finalists.
After participating in weekly challenges and receiving votes from thousands of virtualrush.com users, these six lucky contestants were selected to audition for a walk on role for GREEK and were flown to Los Angeles. Their experience included, a photo shoot, and a set visit to meet the cast as well as their audition for the producers. Visitors to the site are able to view daily postings that recaps the virtualrush.com challenges and show the exciting experience of the six finalists as they pursue their Hollywood dream. During the week of November 19-23, the Virtual Rush community voted for their favorite finalist. The winner will be revealed November 26th. The six finalists recently discussed their experiences with MediaBlvd Magazine and other publications.
Question> What attracted you to watching Greek in the first place, and getting involved with the virtualrush.com community? Were there characters that you particularly identified with, or just the setting, or anything like that?
L. Wise> I myself am Greek, so that’s what initially attracted me to the show. I wondered if this show is really going to portray Greek life accurately? And as I watched the show, I realized, “Wow, this is kind of dead-on.” So I just got really hooked into the show and then from there, I became more interested in the site and it just kind of evolved.
L. Martin> With me, I never had the opportunity to be Greek, but I always wanted to be Greek. So when I saw the show, I was just excited to actually get to see like what Greek life was about. And then with the contest - it looked like a lot of fun. I was just excited about the whole thing, and it makes me want to be Greek even though I’m not. I am in a school now where I can be Greek, which is a huge possibility.
J. Walsh> I started watching because my friend, Jacob, actually has a role on the show, and I was just watching to see him. Then after watching the show, I actually learned that I liked it, not only because he was on it, but just because it was a good show.
NJ McGee> I got into Greek because I’m also in a fraternity like Laura, and I wanted to see if the show and real Greek life actually resembled…. In some aspects it did, in other aspects, it didn’t. But overall I enjoyed the show, and by enjoying the show, I decided to go online, and here I am today.
C. Wilder> I’m kind of in between. I’m the same with Laura and Nate; I’m in a sorority as well. And I always noticed that there was a difference between sororities and fraternities, and it was always such a big difference between how they interact with each other and interact with others. And then I really saw when the commercial came on, it was just really interesting because people – I mean, the talk that went on around – when people would see it. The guys were so excited to see the show and then a lot of the girls were really skeptical and apprehensive on how we’d be depicted on the show.
So I really started to watch it, and I laughed. And then the more I watched it and the issues that came up, it was just really neat, and it really does show Greek life. It shows it in the light and it shows it in the shadow, and – I mean, granted, it’s a drama. It’s a TV show, but I mean, I think they do a good job and I’m hooked, obviously.
J. Stephens> I actually saw commercials for the show and then they talked about the Web site, and I joined up like a month before the show started. Once I started watching the show and then the challenges started, I was hooked. I’m in a Greek organization as well, and I’ve always been interested in seeing stuff like that on TV, like those cheesy shows they had on MTV. They didn’t work out too well, but I was always interested in seeing how the media portrays Greeks in general, and I think they’ve done a great job on this show.
Question> Some of the challenges you all did for the site looked sort of insane. Which one of the ten-week challenges was your favorite?
J. Walsh> My favorite one was the last one, where you got to create your own character, because it actually took a lot more thought than the rest of the other challenges. This is like your chance to like show everyone why you would be good on the show, because you had to show some type of like acting ability almost. And you had to come up with something from scratch, and it wasn’t just like – it was standard, like why you’re awesome, because that was so fake. This was like something of your own and you could create it and – yes, it was the best.
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Laura Wise, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, attends The Ohio State University and majors in Public Relations and Fashion. Her user name is WhiteCup. |
L. Wise> I liked the same one. I liked Get Into Character, because you had to create a character that fit into the show. It took a lot of thought and it also proved that you were really interested in the show, because you could fit in a character into the show that would actually work and function and be a cool character for the show, so that was cool.
Then also people that voted for us I think liked that challenge the most because they could really see how creative we could be with that challenge. That was definitely – it pushed our creativity the most, and I think among most of us, it was our favorite challenge.
C. Wilder> I actually have two that were my favorites. The cross-dressing one was my favorite just because I really thought that it was – everybody did it, you know? I don’t want to say everybody has tried it. But how big of a kick to get in it to see your guy friend dressed up like a girl, and when you’re a girl, you dressed up like a guy. It’s really funny to look at yourself in the mirror and be like, “oh, Lord,” you know?
My other favorite one is the Rock Star one, and I couldn’t tell you for the life of me why it would be my favorite. But I just remember my sister and my roommates and everybody wanted in it. They were giving me makeovers and telling me what to do. I was faking playing a guitar, and – everybody is taking pictures. And the weird thing about it is I really kind of felt like I was a rock star. So maybe just the experience of that challenge is the one that I liked the most. But the one that makes me laugh the most of everybody’s pictures, especially Jay, Jay, you kill me – is the cross-dressing one.
J. Stephens> Yes, for some reason I’m good at that. I don’t know why.
My favorite one was the Get Into Character one too, just because I took a character that was mentioned on the show, Egyptian Joe, and I kind of expanded on it. It kind of had some meat to it, like he was a character they did mention a few times on the show. I got to just kind of expand on that and see if I could pick that character being on the show, who I would want him to be like and talk like and look like. And to have the chance to do that was awesome.
NJ McGee> I liked a lot of the challenges, like different aspects of them. Like in week four, I loved being Cheerman, and I think a lot of other people enjoyed the video off of that. But my favorite, as I said in the show, was week five, Tiki Week. I loved that, because I went a little bit too wild on that. I think I scarred a few eyes here and there with the hula dancing. But I think the best part about that week was when I dressed up as Tiki Man with my colorful headdress and face paint. Because I never have done stuff like that before, and just doing that let me free myself, let me out of the little shell that I had created, but I loved it.
L. Martin> I have a couple favorite ones. I can’t just pick one, because I was so involved in all of them that it’s hard to really pinpoint what I liked the most. But I really liked the last week when we were able to create our own character. Everybody got to use their biggest creativity. We had to make something from nothing. We totally had to create something that didn’t exist, and I think all of us actually participated in that one, and that was I think huge.
I really liked the Rock Star video or, not the video, but the challenge of being a rock star, because music is my thing. That’s my speed. That’s what I like to do, and it gave me a chance to just show what I do best, by writing the part from the Plain White T’s song, Our Time Now, and I just get to have fun with it. Even though I’d never heard the song, I was excited just to learn a new piece and play it for everybody. So it was definitely my favorite, too.
NJ McGee> Yes, you were pretty good at that.
L. Martin> Thanks, bro.
Question> The whole concept of Rush’d paired with Greek, is almost groundbreaking, and that I’m not really sure that I’ve seen another network doing this with a companion website. Do you see it the same way, or do you feel like you’re doing something really unique here? Do you think this is the way things are going to go in the future?
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Jenna Walsh, 20, of Chicago, plans to attend MacCormac College and major in Sports Medicine. Her user name is Jenziebaby. |
J. Walsh> I think this is awesome, like, this is totally unique. I’ve never seen anything like this on any other shows. It’s really smart actually, because – it’s definitely – now that the show is not on right now and it’s coming back in ’08. But now that it’s off, it’s still keeping people interested. And it’s definitely an amazing thing to do, to bring people together and talk about the show, and also to have a chance to be on the show. That is just extraordinary, and I definitely think that it makes the show stand out from any other show.
C. Wilder> I agree with Jenna. I couldn’t even contemplate. I see blogs and stuff for different TV shows that come out, but never just a full-on network of people that could have their own pages. And then on top of it, you have this challenge that, this ten-week challenge that went along with the show. So every Monday you would watch the show and then you could spend the rest of the week talking about the show or even talking to the characters on the show was just genius – genius all the way around.
And then to have this Rush’d show, I never, ever, ever would have even expected that it would be the way it is on the show; I think it’s just amazing. That’s the only word that really comes to mind.
L. Martin> It’s so huge, it’s so exciting. It’s so huge, like no other network. I haven’t seen any other network do anything where people can just full-on get their whole lives involved, because this was kind of like my life for ten weeks, this was huge, and it still is. It’s just continued to go, and a lot of people still get on every day just to see what’s going on with the show Rush’d.
But it all links to the show Greek with ABC Family, but I’ve never seen any network give people the opportunity. I know other networks do like open casting calls or contests, but they never do something where people can really just interact as the show is going on, besides, like Chrissy said, just about blogs and stuff like that. But this is like a whole new level of interaction. It’s awesome.
L. Wise> I would agree. I think it’s definitely a groundbreaking concept, and it’s a great marketing tool. Luigi and ABC Family are amazing and very smart for thinking of it.
I think that it’s also really cool for us because we’re a part of this really different new like – I don’t even know what to call it – community? – where no one really knows what’s going on. We don’t know what’s coming next. So I think that that’s what keeps people coming back, because this is new. No one has ever been a part of a program like this. Even though it does have some similarities to programs like Facebook or MySpace, it’s so different in so many ways that I think it keeps people coming back and keeps people interested, because they don’t know what’s coming next. And I’m sure that in the future there will be some copycats, because this is an amazing new idea.
NJ McGee> I would like to say that this site is freaking awesome. The idea around it that ABC Family came up with, compare the Web site with the show, I have to agree with Ben. It is genius, pure genius. Having a social site revolving around Greek society, having the show pair up with challenge-wise, online, everything seemed to go together like perfectly. This concept is just groundbreaking and will probably – definitely be copycatted by other shows in the near future. But I think it’s safe to say that this is a first.
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Luke Martin, 22, of Tallahassee, attends Tallahassee Community College and majors in Music and Psychology. His user name is Ivory_Rockstar. |
C. Wilder> Definitely the first. I kind of want to add in there that I think the main – one of the biggest – the biggest, biggest point about it is the friends that people have made. I mean, obviously I have some really good friends who are the finalists, but I also have some really good friends who never even participated in the contest. It’s just, they’re on this Web site and they watch the show Rush’d because they’re interested. And they want to know about you and want to know about other people.
I’ve met some people on Virtual Rush that I went to school with; I didn’t even know them. And now, after being on the site, I’ll see them on campus, and I just really made some amazing friends, and so many people have. And it’s crazy to think that these friends I got from a TV show and a Web site. It’s crazy, but it’s amazing, and I love it.
Question> How was it going to LA and meeting the cast and crew? Were they tough on you? Was it sort of nerve-wracking, or was it just cool?
C. Wilder> It was one of the most – it was such a cool experience. Aside from just being in L.A., I was excited to go to L.A., don’t get me wrong, just set aside. But more than that, I’d been talking to Jenna and Jay were two of the people that I started talking to from the first day that I’d gone onto the site and so we really started a friendship at the very beginning.
Then Luke and I got so close over it, and these people that you talk to all the time, every single day, and for hours on end, and you’ve just never seen their face in person. You finally get to go meet them, and it’s nerve-wracking. But then you meet them and it’s just like you have known them forever, and I think the L.A. experience was amazing, but meeting them was the most amazing part of it all.
Then, when we got to go onto the set and see how the set was done and meet the characters and chit-chat with them, unreal. I mean, unreal. It was so neat, and just to see Hollywood and the lights and the people, and meet the crew behind the madness of Virtual Rush, it’s so overwhelming. And four days really doesn’t seem enough time to let it all sink in, because it didn’t sink in for me until I got home, and I was like, “Oh, my gosh, what just happened to me?” So it was awesome.
L. Wise> I think we were all just so shocked and kind of like out of our element at first, but just so excited. We could have done that for months. We just had a blast. No one was hard on us at all. They let us do what we wanted to do; they were so friendly. The people that we worked with were amazing, and I would love to work with anyone that we were with in L.A. I didn’t encounter anyone that was rude or mean, and we got to do so many experiences that no one else would ever be able to experience our age.
These are things that other kids dream about, and I think that we kind of like had that in mind. We were just genuinely excited. None of us were like too cool for the experience; we were all totally pumped to be there and just soaking it all in. And meeting a ton of great people, I made so many friends. It was just, all in all, one of the coolest experiences that will ever happen to me, so I loved it.
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Chrissy Celotto, 26, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, attends Winthrop University and majors in Interior Design. Her user name is Van Wilder. |
J. Stephens> I totally agree. When you think about it before the site ever happened, we didn’t even know any of us really existed. And then we got on the site and we spent like almost three months together doing the same thing for the same goal. And then when we finally get to meet in L.A., it kind of all came together out there. It all really was like, okay, this is real, this is the real deal. And all the opportunities that we had out there, plus being able to meet everybody together, it was surreal. That’s like the one word to describe it; it was really just surreal. It was amazing.
L. Wise> And plus you had to touch the volcano.
J. Stephens> That’s true. I did touch Vesuvius, and that was my goal. I accomplished it.
L. Martin> It was just exciting, getting to meet these people. I met these people, all of them on the site. And it’s kind of like meeting people in real life, because you come across hundreds of people. And especially at that time – come across so many people on the site, and you make friends with people that are like you. You develop relationships with people that you get along with. Just like in real life, if you were to meet somebody like in the student union or something, you get to know people that you care about and who have common interests, and who you just have characteristics and you like the same thing.
And it was the same thing on there. You would go onto the site and you would just kind of hang out with your friends, and you would hang out with people that you developed relationships with. It was very, very parallel to how we live our normal life. And then to get to go to L.A. and then to meet these people, we really had become just so close, even on the site, and became even closer when we got to L.A.
Once we got to L.A., we were just able to expound on everything, from conversations that we had had, to just hanging out. And everybody was so amazing. The people that we worked with were just some of the most fun people, and you could just tell they love doing what they do, and they made it so great for us. They made that experience just incredible in L.A., and most of us had never even been to L.A., so it was all like a fresh new experience and we were just stoked to see all this crazy stuff.
C. Wilder> I also like how – all of our inside jokes, how we all could still laugh about all the inside jokes and like stories that we’d tell over Virtual Rush. That was so funny, just some of the stuff that you guys remember that we would even talk about in the past just made me laugh so hard.
L. Martin> I know. It’s just like if we had been in the same town, the same city the whole time, having fun jokes, you have little things that you talk about with people, and we just continued them there. It was so much fun.
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Nate McGee, 21, of Wichita, attends Wichita State University and majors in Psychology and Creative Writing. His user name is NjMcGee. |
J. Walsh> I thought it was like crazy, because I live a really boring life in real life. I kind of just like wake up, sit around, go to work for a few hours, come back, sit around. This was more like, you wake up, meet me downstairs in the lobby 7:45. You go down there and then you hop in the van. You go eat breakfast, you’re going to this place. Then you’re going in this place, and then you’re filming. And then you’re going here, and then you’re doing this. It was just like so – whoa, my gosh, and people do this like every day of their lives. I don’t know, like it was just nonstop. We all knew – it was like we would – like, hurry up and wait; we did that a lot.
But it’s like, that’s Hollywood, I guess. Like that’s what you do. It’s like everybody’s on different time. Everyone’s not on like the same level; everyone’s doing this or that. It was definitely a new experience for me, because like I said, I’m kind of boring in real life, so that was just a total – like blew me back. And it was definitely an experience that I will never forget.
NJ McGee> L.A. is like an injection of adrenaline put into your system. You do not know what’s going to happen. It’s always spontaneous. Everything is kept in the dark, so we didn’t know what the heck we were going to do next, or who we’re going to meet, or basically what we’re going to see.
We were treated almost like royalty in L.A. We had our own driver, where after everything was done, he was willing to take us wherever we wanted to go. The people were awesome. Everyone behind the scenes of Virtual Rush was awesome.
But one main thing that I believe everyone has hit on, that I’ve taken from this, is the more concrete friendships. Because before the site, we would talk to each other on the phone, online, just hung out, that kind of thing. But in person, we all just clicked. I mean, those times that we were just talking on line and then those times we were hanging out – it was perfect.
Every other finalist here is like family to me now, because I’ve built relationships with these people for months, and then L.A. was just the peak of it. I think that even past when this contest is over, we’re already planning on having like reunion trips…. I think the friendships were definitely what was best about L.A.
