TV Tango: For people who haven't seen AMERICA NOW, what makes the show unique and why should they watch?

Bill Rancic: I think what makes the show unique and stand out from a lot of other shows is the fact that we discuss some of the problems that face everyday people, everyday of their lives, but yet we bring solutions to the problems. We tackle everything from money issues to weight and from keeping your kids safe from child predators to how to save your cell phone if it falls in water. We run the gamut.

It's a fast-paced show that covers a lot of territory in 30 minutes, and after they watch the show they can implement some of the things that we show immediately into their lives. And be better for it.

The support we've gotten has been spectacular. The ratings have been great in most of the markets that I've seen so I think the show has definitely been gaining [traction]. You know, we've only been on the air for about a month. We're pretty pleased. Everyday that goes by, I think more and more viewers watch so we're pretty excited about the future.

TV Tango: What's it like working with Leeza [Gibbons]?

Bill Rancic: She's great; she's kind of like a sister. We kind of have that relationship, and we hit it off instantly. 

She's a pro. You know, she's been doing this a lot longer than I have. It's been fun working with her, and it's been great having someone who's been in the business such a long time. She really took me under her wing and embraced it, and I'm glad to have her on the team.

TV Tango: What did you learn on iVILLAGE LIVE that best prepared you to host AMERICA NOW?

Bill Rancic: Well, iVILLAGE LIVE was really a good stepping stone for me. I did it for a year, and it really helped me learn the craft. I never really had a lot of experience with teleprompters or hosting that type of a show. 

I made a show for A&E, WE MEAN BUSINESS, where we renovated businesses. I went in and renovated businesses all around the country, but the skills [I learned on iVILLAGE LIVE] have been really helpful for me.

iVILLAGE was whole different ballgame, and it was live. It was kind of baptism by fire. I literally practiced on a teleprompter for three days -- for maybe three hours -- and then we had our first show. It was fun for me, and we had a great team over there and worked with some really nice people, but I think it was a step in the right direction for me. And it helped me prepare for AMERICA NOW.

Credit: Giuliana Rancic.

TV Tango: A while back Giuliana posted a photo of you wearing flip flops on the set of AMERICA NOW, are you still wearing flip flops with your suit on set?

Bill Rancic: [Laughter]. Fortunately when we shoot the show, it's from the knees up so the viewers don't see the footwear. It was a long day we were having, and my feet were killing me. We jokingly put on...I think Leeza had her fuzzy slippers on and I had my flip flops on.

All my Chicago friends teased me that "Wow, you're in L.A. and you converted that quickly." Los Angeles is growing on me. I just talked to my sister this morning [mid-October 2011] in Chicago and she was putting gloves on her son as he was getting ready for school. On a day like today in L.A., it's nice when you can have the beautiful weather here.

TV Tango: What's your favorite AMERICA NOW story or segment so far this season?

Bill Rancic: There's just so many. We cover so much ground. A lot of the money issues I really like because that's kind of my background. We're offering tips on how people can save money, how they can get out of debt, how they can restructure their mortgage. People who are out there watching have real problems. We live in L.A. and it's a little bit of a microcosm. For my other job, I travel around and do a lot of speaking, and it brings me to towns all across the country. We want to offer people guidance and help as to how they can make their lives better. That's the cool thing about what we do. That's been one.

And we do a lot with keeping your kids safe. It's amazing what goes on in the world. We're really educating these people. When I read these stories, I'm blown away because I had no idea how people could access your cell phone or your kid's cell phone or the things that they're doing on Facebook now. I was stunned by it. I'm glad we're bringing it to light, and we're educating the moms and dads who are watching the show.

Photo Credit: Dana Millikin

TV Tango: What was it like spending a day with the U.S. Coast Guard?

Bill Rancic: It was great. I'm a huge supporter of the military, and certainly the U.S. Coast Guard is a big part of keeping our country safe. I got to spend a whole day with them and went on a few training missions. It was a lot of fun.

I've been pretty lucky because last year I got to go with the Thunderbirds, and I spent an afternoon in an F-16 flying with them. But this [the Coast Guard] was another thing I got to cross off my list.

We got to provide some good tips on water safety, and also educate people. What these guys do, most people don't realize how difficult it is to perform safety and life-saving techniques that they do and how much danger they put themselves in. We were hovering 12 feet above the water saving someone and the pilot says we're in a ditch position -- if you get below 30 feet, you have to ditch the chopper; there's no pulling out of it. I had the headphones on, and I was like "Whoa! This is not a joke." This is some serious business that these guys do, and they really put their lives in jeopardy every single day to save us.

We went right out of LAX [Los Angeles International Airport], and kind of patrolled the coast. I forget the exact dimensions of the area, but it's a pretty vast amount of mileage that they have to cover with limited resources. They go a couple hundred miles off the coast too. If some guy who gets in a sailboat doesn't know what he's doing and he's 200 miles off the shore, they have to go out and take care of him. A lot of what they do is preventable -- they don't file float plans, they don't put life vests in their watercraft or they're intoxicated.

But they also patrol the ships coming in for drugs and immigration. There's so much more to their job than saving some guy who has his 30-foot sailboat stuck on a sandbar.

TV Tango: On an upcoming segment for AMERICA NOW, you spend time with Gunnar Peterson. What was that like?

Bill Rancic: He's a pretty fascinating guy and he trains everyone from Tom Brady to Kim Kardashian and everyone in between. He sees it all, but aside from all the stars and glamour, we talked about childhood obesity. That's really an epidemic plaguing our country.

I read an interesting statistic. It said by the year 2020, 50% of all American men will be obese. We don't realize how quickly 2020 is going to be here.

We tackled a lot about what you can do for your kids. When I was a kid, we maybe had one or two kids in my class that we would consider obese. Now -- I took my nephew to school last week -- and it was remarkable how many kids were severely overweight. And he's in 7th grade. It's becoming a lot more of a problem than we think.

Gunnar's an amazing guy. He has quite a success story. He put some things in place and gave our viewers some tips that are manageable, and hopefully we'll get them on the right path of becoming fit and learning a healthy lifestyle. You don't have to go on a liquid diet. That's the new thing -- all of these people are going on these juice diets that aren't sustainable and then you go back to your old ways.

What Gunnar and I did was that we just had a nice conversation, and he was offering realistic tips and things you can do immediately to start living a healthier life.

TV Tango: If you hadn't won THE APPRENTICE, what do you think your life would be like now?

Bill Rancic: Certainly a lot different, there's no question about it.

I was an entrepreneur -- and I still am -- but I think THE APPRENTICE gave me a little bit of an introduction to television. I got to not only compete on it, but for four, five or six seasons following, Donald [Trump] and Mark [Burnett] had me on as a judge on a regular basis. For me, that was kind of neat. I got to learn about it and get behind the scenes and I guess I got bit by the bug because I really had fun doing it and never intended on it. THE APPRENTICE was to test my skills as an entrepreneur -- to see if I could stack up with the competition. That was for me a lot of fun and a very rewarding competition to participate in. 

But then I got to come back as a judge season after season after season, and I got the call to do iVILLAGE and WE MEAN BUSINESS and so on.

My life would be a lot different, and we probably wouldn't be talking here today.

Let me back up, I probably wouldn't have met my wife! She was interviewing me regarding one of the upcoming seasons of THE APPRENTICE that I was a judge on. She was called on to talk to me.

Definitely I'd still be opening up a restaurant or a business, and I'm still very active as an entrepreneur. I'm active in real estate. I just kind of shifted my focus. I created a TV show [AIRPLANE REPO] about a guy who possesses private jets for Discovery Channel; so I tried my hand at that and I hope to continue in that business.

Learning the behind the scenes [of television] is real business. Mark Burnett is a walking testament. Here's a guy who came to America as a nanny, and he's well on his way to becoming a billionaire -- or he's already pretty close.

TV Tango: What did you learn as Executive Producer of AIRPLANE REPO?

Bill Rancic: It was a tough show to do. There were a lot of moving parts. There were a lot of different personalities involved in it. It was a great learning experience for me. Everything I do, I try to learn from it.

I was able to learn from some of the people who had been doing it a long time. We partnered with another production company, and they had done a lot of shows..

I think at the end of the day it was a spectacular learning opportunity for me. It was something that no one had ever done. It was about a guy who essentially is Robin Hood, taking from the rich -- these hedge-fund guys and people who were taking planes but didn't want to pay for them.

It was very difficult, very challenging. There were a lot of different components, which made it very difficult to shoot -- homeland security issues and a whole array of different things that we encountered.

I don't think it was sustainable. It's too hard and there's too much involved in how these things go. A repo could take a month. That's the thing. There's so much involved in getting these planes and getting them out safely. The pilots who are repoing these planes don't know the safety record. They don't know if these things have been maintained, essentially taking off in the dark of night.

TV Tango: Do you have any other programs where you're working behind the scenes?

Bill Rancic: Obviously with the last four seasons of GIULIANA & BILL, my wife and I were Executive Producers. We just finished the fourth season of that show, and we had our best season ever. I think the ratings were up 25-30% from the previous season.

It's been fun to work on. It's a show we've been able to use as a great platform to tackle a lot of issues -- from infertility to some of our causes, like Haiti, and some of the other things we've been able to showcase. I'm very proud of the four seasons that we've done and the fact that we've been able to do good and make a reality show that people can watch with their children.

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were stopped by this woman and she said "Thank you for making the show because it's about a relationship I hope my daughter is in one day." That's the best compliment anyone could ever give us, because that is what our goal was. When we first went to TCA [Television Critic's Association Press Tour] when they announced the first season, we were saying that we were going to do a show that was wholesome and family-friendly, and a guy who was on the panel after us, a producer, said "That show will be canceled after three episodes because no one wants to watch that." And we just had our best season ever with Season 4.

TV Tango: What's the most inspirational fan interaction about IVF that kept you and Giuliana encouraged?

Bill Rancic: Everyday we get stopped, whether it's at an airport [or somewhere else]. I had a flight attendant come up and hug me the other day, and she said "You know, my husband and I have been struggling with this for years, and we suffered in silence. Because of your show, I've now been able to tell my friends and I don't feel alone anymore." For me, that's what it's about. We were able to make one person's life better, and I know there are a lot more people out there like her who couldn't tell anyone.

TV Tango: What's one of your favorite projects or stories from Gradient Gives Back?

Bill Rancic: That was fun. We got to go to a lot of different families. It was pretty emotional, some of them, because they're having trouble paying the mortage.

We went to one family who had a child who had a major disability, and for me it was remarkable to see how the whole community came out. They built a ramp. They remodeled the interior of the house. We were able to get their mortgage restructured.

I only did that for a year, but it was so rewarding and it was so much fun -- the families and how we were able to arm them with the right tools. You know, there's the old saying, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life." That was the goal of Gradient Gives Back. We were there to help them with their resume, give them career counseling, help them restructure their mortgage, tax guidance. We paired them up with an accountant. It was great to be able to help people and to teach them how to fish forever.

Photo credit: HBO.

TV Tango: Besides the series that you or your wife produce or star in, what TV shows are on your DVR?

Bill Rancic: Oh gosh, I can tell you exactly. REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL. That's one of my favorites. I watch MODERN MARVELS on the History Channel. I love that show.

THE OFFICE, I watch -- big fan of THE OFFICE. Love it this season. I like THE HANGOVER movies; so having Andy [Ed Helms] run the office is hilarious.

There's so much more. I'm sad that we didn't get HBO's show about NFL training camp [HARD KNOCKS] because of the shortened pre-season. And I'm looking forward to EASTBOUND & DOWN on HBO -- Kenny Powers has such a crazy sense of humor.

Photo credit: NBC.

TV Tango: If you could score a guest role on any current TV series, which sitcom or drama series would you choose and why?

Bill Rancic: For a comedy, it would be THE OFFICE. It's one of my favorite shows and it's just so much fun to watch and you can tell they have fun doing it.

For drama, probably one of the CSI series. My degree is in Criminology, and I always wanted to be in the FBI. When I was a kid and when I was in college, I was an undercover security guard at FAO Schwarz in Chicago on Michigan Ave. catching shoplifters. So that's always been in my blood. Definitely one of the detective shows which are on right now.