The premiere episode of the 8th season of Bravo’s “The Millionaire Matchmaker”, which also happened to be my debut as a new matchmaker, was the most watched in the history of the show with 1.5 million viewers! What an amazing start to this season! Ironically, thirty of my closest friends were not one of those 1.5 million viewers because they attended my “Premiere Unviewing Party”. Confusing right? I’m still confused myself to be quite honest.
The lead up to the premiere was actually a very hectic period for me. Within a week, I had flown to Honolulu to judge the Miss Hawaii USA 2015 pageant for the weekend and then flew to Dayton, Ohio to be with my family for Thanksgiving. Upon returning to Los Angeles, I only had a couple days to prepare for the viewing party. Funny enough, I felt pressure because of the immense amount of support I received from my friends. Susie Castillo, an amazing human being, Miss USA 2003 and friend, had reserved the private viewing room for me. Carrie Mantha, one of my closest friends and a Miss USA sister, took time out of her busy schedule to fly to LA just to attend the viewing party! Many of my friends reached out to express their excitement and offer assistance. I felt overwhelmed by it all and desperately wanted the viewing party to be somewhat cool. I worked on arrangements with the private viewing room, the guest list, wine, snacks, etc. I wanted to cross every “T” and dot every “I” in my true overachiever fashion.
The day of the premiere arrived and the excitement grew by the minute. Friends and family on the East coast were calling and texting me nonstop with excitement while my West coast peeps were all preparing for this fabulous viewing party I was throwing. I planned to watch the show Eastern Standard Time so I could live tweet fans and then head to the viewing party. So at 6pm PST I nervously watched my premiere alone with my Blackberry (yes, I still have a Blackberry). I had no idea what the finished product would be! How was my makeup? Was my weave tight? Did I sound intelligent? Would America hear my ear-piercing laugh?
And so it began. I loved it! It was awesome! Wow, I can’t wait for all my close friends to experience this with me in a few hours at my viewing party, is what I thought to myself as I threw on my dress, touched up my make up and rushed to the shindig!
When I arrived, most of my guests were already mingling and full of anticipation. I must admit that I have difficulty accepting from others because I’m a giver. I tell clients all the time that when you truly love yourself, you know what you deserve and can then accept. This is something I continue to work on. So many of my Miss USA sisters, celebrities from the season, including AJ Johnson and Reza Farahan, and close friends attended that I was on pins and needles.
The time had come! The TVs in the lounge and private theatre were turned on and switched to the BRAVO channel at exactly 9pm, the scheduled time for our West coast premiere. But wait, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” came on! Huh? What’s going on? I spoke to the viewing room coordinator and he was confused as well. We were both frantically trying to figure out the situation and friends jumped in to assist. This goes on for thirty minutes to no avail. Turns out that the private room was Dish TV and set on East coast time so they needed to have recorded the show when it aired on the East coast. This was an EPIC FAIL. To say I felt like I got gut punched would be an understatement. I truly felt like I let all these amazing people who went out of their way to support me down. I dropped the ball. They all said “It’s ok Candace, we recorded it. We can watch it later”, but that did not comfort me.
It just so happened that right at the moment I left the screening room to have an emotional breakdown alone in the hallway, I see two rather large figures walking towards me. I yelled “hello?” because it is a private room and I wasn’t sure if one of my disgruntled guests had called in some goons to break my kneecaps. One of the figures yelled back, “It’s Akin!” It was retired star NFL linebacker Akin Ayodele along with a fellow NFL player, Anthony Henry ,arriving to join my viewing party. Little did they know it had officially become my “Premiere Unviewing Party” at this point.
I gave Akin the run down on how I had failed everyone. Akin immediately grabbed me, looked in my eyes and gave me one of the best pep talks I have ever received. He explained that there is so much out of our control in life and it’s all about the “midstream adjustment”. I knew this had to be football lingo but it resonated! I got it. I need to adjust. Just then Shandi Finnessey, who happens to be Miss USA 2004, pulled me to the side. She suggested I go back in and simply share with everyone what my experience was like and people could ask questions. At this point I was teary eyed and all of my amazing girlfriends, too many to name, were in the ladies room comforting me.
I got it together and as I headed back in I see one of the best photographers in the world, Arnold Turner! He had arrived with his camera to take photos for me as a friend! I had to snap out of it. So I shared my experience with my friends, they laughed, asked questions and it all seemed to have been saved in a way. Arnold took amazing photos while BRAVO’s “Shahs of Sunset” star Reza Farahan ordered pizza for everyone! Everyone ate, drank wine and enjoyed each other. As my friend Quddus Philippe was leaving he said to me, “Everyone was here for you, not the show”. Those words meant so much.
The lesson for me was I am blessed and to accept it. I am blessed in a way that has nothing to do with the show, how many viewers we got or what happens in the future with the show. I am grateful for every last person who attended, comforted me, laughed, ordered pizza, took a photo, smiled for a photo and most importantly wiped a tear. I am also grateful for how well received I was from fans of the show. It touched my heart. THANK YOU.
