- All right,
it's time to get to something super cool
to brighten your day, hopefully.
This is "What I'm Liking."
(audience cheers)
Normally, at this point in the show,
I share something cool from the world of social media.
Today, I am mixing it up
and sharing something awesome from the world of television.
Check this out.
- [Narrator] Ever wonder if your life
could have been totally different?
- It's good to be home!
- Your Dad would be proud of you.
- Can you believe we made him?
- At least we did one thing right.
- [Narrator] It's only natural to wonder,
"What if?"
- [Narrator #2] Ordinary Joe premieres tonight on NBC.
- What a cool show!
That is a clip from the new NBC series Ordinary Joe,
which debuts tonight.
It stars James Wolk as an everyday guy
who has a sort of sliding doors moment.
It takes his life trajectory
in three totally different directions:
a nurse, a rockstar, and an NYPD cop.
We have James on the line dialed in from his set in Atlanta.
(audience cheers)
James, we saw a clip, but tell us more about the show.
- Yes. Hey Kelly. So good to see you, first of all.
- Good to see you as well.
- The show is, yeah,
it's basically about choice.
You find this cast of characters and,
and I play a guy named Joe Kimbreau.
You see him the days graduating from college,
you see that there's three different paths he can take.
There's one path is following his dreams
of becoming a musician, as you saw.
Another one is choosing the family
and following in his father's footsteps,
who was an NYPD police officer.
And then the last path
is basically he ends up marrying his college sweetheart.
And then the audience follows him through
the three variations, the three iterations of his life.
And it basically just plays
with this idea of how choices shape who we are
and how our lives are drastically changed
by our choices.
- I love it.
What a great idea for a show.
And also, I just want to ask, like,
which one would you pick out of those three?
Which life?
- Ooh.
That's a good question.
I actually was thinking about that.
I was talking about that with my wife the other day.
And my first thought was like,
"Okay, definitely the rock star," right?
Like who doesn't want to be a rock star.
Kelly, right?
(Kelly Laughs)
- I don't know, I'm not one.
Pop star and rock star are very different.
I play Scrabble after shows.
(laughing)
- Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Right. This guy's rock star.
No Scrabble for him.
But he--
like, I thought that was where I wanted to be.
And then I saw like the beautiful bond
that he has with his son in the nurse storyline.
And I recently had kids.
I have a four-year-old son
and a two-year-old daughter with my wife.
And so I love kind of being able
to interject that storyline
with my own, you know, path.
- Oh, that's awesome.
What a cool thing.
Well, I love you, James.
Thank you so much.
I'm liking your posts right now.
And everyone remember
to check out Ordinary Joe on NBC debuting tonight.
Now, usually this is the moment I surprise our guests
with $1000 from Pilot Pen,
but in the spirit of the show,
James wants to pay that money forward
to an organization close to his heart.
So James, who are you giving the money to?
- There's an organization that I love
that my family's involved with called Heart of Passion.
And it's a organization
that sets up events for teens with cancer.
And basically high school students are mentored
to throw these retreat style camps
for teens who are currently going through cancer
or who have gone through cancer.
And it's just an amazing weekend for these teens
to get together and have fun and enjoy themselves.
And I would love to give the money to Heart of Passion.
- Aw, that's so great!
That's a cool organization.
So, Heart of Passion.
That means our season-long partner Pilot Pen (indistinct)
the Kelly Clarkson Show.
We'll be using their FriXion erasable pen
to write you a check for $1000.
Thank you so much, James.
Congrats on the awesome show, man.
I can't wait to see it.