The American Idol winner is hosting the new skating competition series, while two-time U.S. Olympian and national figure skating champion Johnny Weir and roller-skating legend Terrell Ferguson sit on the judging panel.
Jordin Sparks is skating into her new role — and she has Ryan Seacrest to thank for inspiring her to do so!
While sitting down with TooFab in Los Angeles ahead of the premiere of Max’s newest competition series for skaters, Roller Jam, Sparks shared how her time on American Idol helped spark an interest in hosting.
“You’re basically the Ryan Seacrest here,” TooFab told Sparks before she gleamed of happiness.
“Thank you! Thank you! Exactly! Somebody asked me earlier if hosting was something that I had always wanted to do. And honestly, it was from watching Ryan,” Sparks told TooFab exclusively.
Roller Jam/Max/Getty/TooFab
“I was like, I think I could do that. Because it was fun. You get to be kind of the liaison between the contestants and the judges and the audience. So you’re kind of touching all different people,” she continued.
Sparks was just 17-years-old when she was named “American Idol” in 2007, winning the show’s sixth season. Seacrest has been the competition’s host for over 21 seasons, hosting while Sparks competed on the show, too.
While Roller Jam isn’t about singing, the now 34-year-old pop star found she could emphasize with the contestants on the Max series as a host because she has been “in their shoes.”
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“I understand what it’s like to think you’re giving your best performance, and then they’re just like, ‘No, that was not it.’ Or to think that it wasn’t that great, but then it really was,” she continued. “I loved being able to encourage them and have compassion for them and help them kind of walk through the emotions and the mental part of it.”
The “No Air” singer was also able to draw from her experience on Dancing with the Stars too.
“The storytelling, it’s so important to all of our careers and everything that we do to be able to emote and be authentic in that way. So I did bring a lot from Idol, and I guess Dancing with the Stars too, just having to dance,” she said. “And since that wasn’t something I was the strongest in, I was a lot more nervous than I was on Idol.”
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After working on Roller Jam, Sparks’ love of skating was reignited and she’s already planning to have some of the contestants to be in her next music video … when it happens.
“I was like, “I would love to put you guys in my video… And when I find out when I’m doing my video, I’ll let you guys know,'” she told TooFab. “But I definitely want to do that.”
While Sparks herself hasn’t dusted off a pair of skates in a long time, she may be getting a pair for her 6-year-old son, Dana Jr., who shared his love for the sport after watching sneak peeks of the show.
“I think I might be getting him a pair of skates for Christmas,” she said, adding that she can’t wait for him to watch Roller Jam. “He gets to see something new, something different. And I was showing him a couple of the videos that I took. And I was like, ‘Buddy, look, they did a flip.’ And his eyes lit up.”
Along with Sparks as the host, Roller Jam has enlisted two-time U.S. Olympian and national figure skating champion Johnny Weir and roller-skating legend Terrell Ferguson to judge the skating stars.
“I’m getting calls, texts, DMs, pigeons,” Ferguson said of the skating community’s response to the competition series. “I’m getting messages like every day. Everyone is so thrilled because It’s something to strive for now. Everyone wants to get better. It’s for your inner peace. You get better, your mental is better. But now there’s like, for a basketball player to get to the NBA, they have something that they can actually reach for, that they can see their peers doing.”
Meanwhile, on the ice side of the rink, Weir said figure skaters are contacting him to find out how they can get involved with the series, too.
Roller Jam/Max
As an Olympian and former Dancing with the Stars contestant, Weir knows a thing or two about being judged.
“The most important thing was the performance was cohesive, but, as a performer who’s been judged my entire life until now, even as an entertainer, I wanted to be supportive because I have to balance Terrell, who is very critical,” Weir joked with TooFab.
“It was a perfect balance. Perfect level of continuity between the two of us because we both know what it takes to perform at the highest level,” he added. “We both know what a good performance feels like versus a rough performance.”
The three faces of Roller Jam already have their skates crossed the show is a success as they talk about the possibility for a 25th season elsewhere in the interview. They also hope artistic skating makes its way into the Olympics one day.
“I feel like if break dancing was in the Olympics,” Weir wondered. “Why is roller skating not in the Olympics?”
“And roller skaters do both. We literally figure skate and break dance,” Ferguson added.
Roller Jam premieres on Max tonight with new episodes each Thursday.
Roller Jam/Max
