The Teen Choice Awards air on FOX this Sunday and we’ll be covering the event right here, so stay tuned for the live blog. Glee star, Kevin McHale will co-host along with X Factor judge, Demi Lovato.
Kevin conducted a conference call earlier this week to talk about the awards and also answer a few questions about playing the wheelchair-bound student Artie on Glee. Unfortunately, he and Demi will NOT be singing a duet on Sunday, but he anticipates having lots of fun co-hosting with her.
Check out the Q&A below:
What can viewers expect when Kevin co-hosts the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS? Has he been working with Demi Lovato? We haven’t started yet because she’s doing something called THE X FACTOR. She’s a busy girl. She’s on tour doing THE X FACTOR. We’ll get together in a couple of days and start working on it, but TEEN CHOICE, regardless, is always fun and super crazy and I can’t wait. I think it’s going to be exciting and it’s live, so you never know what’s going to happen.
Does he have any do’s or don’ts going into the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS: Good question, do’s and don’ts, it’s kind of nerve-wracking. Because it’s live, I guess you have to watch what you say and keep it together. It’s going to be fun, so luckily I have Demi to lean on and likewise for her, so I’m excited to see No Doubt, so I hopefully won’t act like a fan gorilla in front of all the people that I like. I should probably stay professional. That my goal is I act like an actual host and not like a fan.
Has he ever hosted a live show before and what is he looking forward to the most? I hosted the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS two years ago with Katy Perry and Mark, Chris and Cory from GLEE, but because there were so many of us, we each just had a little part, so this will definitely be a lot more responsibility, but I’m excited. I’m looking forward to kind of being able to spend a little time with Demi and having the spontaneity of it being live, because you can only plan so much, so I’m going to hopefully be prepared for anything. I’m really excited to see all the live performances.
Is he nervous? Will his Glee Tour experience help him? Yes, it is definitely a little different than the GLEE TOUR, but my favorite thing on the planet is being in front of a live audience. Like on tour, I actually loved it. Granted this is talking. I prefer to be singing in front of a live audience, so yes, it is a little nerve-wracking, but I think a little nervous energy is great for this sort of thing. It keeps you on your toes.
What is he looking forward to about co-hosting with Demi Lovato? I think kind of our back and forth. I think we’ll have a good chemistry up on stage. It’ll be fun to kind of mess around, and I’m extremely self-deprecating, so I’m all for being made fun of, so it’s going to be fun to kind of see what happens when we work on the script for the show and whatnot.
Any hopes of persuading Demi to do a guest spot on Glee? Oh, I will definitely ask her to do that. Granted I don’t have that power, but I’m trying to get her on board. It was like at Comic-Con, I was doing the same thing. I’m like who can we get on here. I would love for her to come on. I mean we haven’t met any of my family and so I mean she could be my sister, right? I’m all for that.
Is he beginning to feel his age around teenagers? Oh, yes, definitely. I have a 12-year-old niece and she has an Instagram, which weirded me out and so I follow her on Instagram, and it’s kind of little things where I see her and my friends have younger siblings using like emoticons for this instance, but it’s like what? He’s too young to be doing this and I’m like hold on, what am I saying? I sound like a crazy old parent. I’m like I tell her, I’m like okay any time I start acting like that again, I’m like you have to tell me to stop acting like a parent and I’ll get back to normal. But I’m trying not to, but that was a good question. I definitely do notice that and on the air that we see what kind of music people are listening to and stuff like that, it’s interesting, so I’m trying to not be that old.
His 9 year old nephew helps him with technology, I was reading some article, I forget what it was, but the average age of a household for the deciding factor of buying new technology or whatever is a ten-year-old. A ten year old is the one directing who should what computer, who should buy what tablet or cell phone and stuff like that, so it’s absolutely crazy. When you’re around kids even from like eight to 13, like the 8-year-old still knows software, so like my 9-year-old nephew was helping me with my phone the other day. Granted I was right and not wrong and it made me feel better, but it is crazy.
Have any of the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS artists, including No Doubt, had any influence on the album he’s working on? Oh, good question, I mean growing up, I loved No Doubt and Gwen Stefani and The CREW are amazing performers. I don’t know if any of them directly had anything to do. I mean Flo Rida is such a powerhouse now on the radio. He’s absolutely kind of changing things and he’s played everywhere even though he’s rap and some stations are a little slow to catch on to that. He was kind of the first one to break that mold.
Is he preparing anything for the AWARDS? Well, I’m just talking in front of people. You know luckily I feel very comfortable in front of a live audience, so I’m not too worried about that, but it is hard. I’ve been thinking about that and how do you actually prepare to be a host because it’s such a unique thing. But I think the next couple of days I think when we start rehearsing for it and whatnot, I think we’ll get all the kinks out there and hopefully it’ll be all good for it, but we haven’t started yet.
Did his experience as a boy band member help him prepare to be a host? I think just being on stage has been, I had gotten in it like when I was 14 and was in it until about 19 or 20, and that was the first time I did all kinds of, you know, radio press stories and any type of press like that and going on summer tours, so I think it made me comfortable with talking to people in the media and being in front of live audiences and talking. I think that prepared me for GLEE, even the recording of it and then GLEE was kind of the best preparation for it, because of going on awards shows and presenting and that kind of thing and going on talk shows, it’s kind of the closest thing. I’ve only hosted one other time and that was the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS, so I think kind of doing at concerts and doing that kind of stuff is the closest, so you can get to it without actually being a host.
Does he prefer singing, acting or dancing? Growing up people were always like you have to pick one and I’m like, no, no, and then GLEE happened and I didn’t have to pick one. I think singing is definitely more natural for me to do. It’s more instinctual to me to do. Obviously singing it not challenging, but acting is definitely more of a process for me, not that I was comfortable, which I like is I think it’s why I like it so much, but I get something out of both of them. Dancing is probably, I’d say those two are tied for first and dancing is probably second.
Will he dance on the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS? You know what, I would not put it past myself. I don’t think there’s going to be any planned stuff, but I’m sure something will happen. I’m sure I’ll embarrass myself with some kind of awkward dance at some point.
Will he dance again on GLEE? Well, Harry and I really did, we pitched “Scream” and we really wanted to do that, so that was kind of the first time. Because “The Safety Dance,” dance, I didn’t pitch on the show, because I didn’t think it would ever happen, so I was just super excited about it. Then for “Scream” I’m like okay, if it’s ever going to happen again, this has to be it and so luckily they listened and we got to do that. So I kind of feel like now I’ve used up my allowance for dancing, so last year I basically got every song that I asked for, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut for a while. I would definitely be up for it if they wanted me to do another of those.
Will he be taking his niece and nephew to the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS? Oh, yes, I have my sister and her two daughters and her son are all coming, so they are super excited. They were hounding me for tickets before I knew I was going to be co-hosting it and I was figuring that out and then I was like well, actually, Shannon, you can all go now because I’m hosting it with Demi, so that was a fun twist. Every year I take them to TEEN CHOICE AWARDS and KIDS CHOICE AWARDS. It’s their favorite thing.
Did he vote or watch for the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS when you were younger and how does it make him feel now? Oh yes, I definitely did. It’s just very surreal now that you know, to be kind of up on the stage the whole time presenting it. It’s a very strange thing because I read somewhere that Demi feels the exact same way. It’s just odd when you go admiring something. Every single summer, I would look forward to TEEN CHOICE AWARDS and now here we are and we’ll be hosting it. I’m just glad I haven’t forgotten that. It definitely puts things into perspective.
Will he duet with Demi Lovato on the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS? I don’t think that’s planned. I don’t think it’s going to happen. There’s still slots to fill for all the performers, so I think I will leave that to them. I don’t think Demi needs any help from me. I wish she was performing. I’d like to hear her perform.
His favorite moment from a past TEEN CHOICE AWARDS, Of course, now I’m going to freeze up and not remember anything. I just remembered Britney Spears always winning. I was obsessed with boy bands. I just remember that everybody I loved was always on the show and so my goal was I always wanted to go to TEEN CHOICE AWARDS because everybody is there and now I get it. Now everybody is there and a couple years ago when we went Britney Spears received an award and Jenna was freaking out, that’s like her idol, so it is crazy now, but we kind of get the hang of it.
