From being a nursing student at Winona State University, active in WSU’s nursing club, and crowned Homecoming Queen of 2012, Jenni Knapmiller’s post-graduate fame didn’t end there. As some may know, Jenni was cast this year on season two of the MTV show “Are You The One”. Being bleach blonde, Minnesota nice, and an RN straight out of undergraduate school, she instantly stood out on the reality TV show as a minority. Jenni is a perfect mix between Minnesota-Nice and sarcastic and outspoken. Since they’ve already filmed the show and are airing it now, I was lucky enough to catch a one-on-one interview with Jenni and snag some dirty deets about the show.
Post-college life Jenni and her roommate Ashley, who happened to be her random roommate from freshman year, would get together every Monday and watch MTV’s new reality TV show “Are You The One?”, as their favorite guilty pleasure. For those of you who are not familiar with the show, it consists of 10 girls and 10 guys who each have their own match and throughout the show and the goal is to find their perfect match. They have 10 weeks, and 10 chances to find out who it is, and if guessed correctly, they win $1,000,000 to be divided evenly among each contestant.
Nearing the end of the series, the show said to apply online if interested. Jenni and Ashley talked about filling out the application. It started as a complete joke, bickering back and forth between the two telling each other to apply. As the season was ending, they finally decided they each would apply if the other one would. Jenni logged on, filled out the application, submitted a few pictures, and Ashley began to…but never finished. By the time Jenni found out that Ashley didn’t apply, she already had an email from MTV producers. She went back and forth between ditching the email or replying and becoming active and serious about the application process. After deliberation she decided, “Why the hell not?”. After eight rounds of interviews, phone interviews, Skype interviews, tests, and “more paperwork than nursing school”, she was medically cleared and shipped out to L.A. to meet with a panel of high up MTV producers. Finally, it was time for the test that would match you with your perfect match. “It was seriously like match.com on steroids” Jenni said, “the questions ranged from what’s your favorite breakfast food to how do you handle conflict in a relationship”. At first she was thinking this process would be nothing, she thought, “oh it’s just a reality show, it’s whatever”, but it ended up being the opposite.
Looking at the guys you might think “DOUCHE BAGS” (my words not Jenni’s). Jenni explained that each character was cast for a specific reason: “We’ve got Alex – a comedian and Lenny Kravitz look-alike, Anthony- frat party boy, Dario – Boston football player, and Nate with excessive tattoos” said Jenni, “and those (douch-ey) necklaces they wear are microphones.”
Participating in reality shows can be frowned upon, but she thought why not? “I’m 22 years old and when I’m 40, in a relationship that I hate, or not in one at all, I’d sit there and think ‘Why didn’t I take that opportunity? Why didn’t I go on that reality TV show?’ “. She knew her and Ashley would be watching it either way, and if she didn’t take the chance, she’d be thinking “that could be me…every single Monday”.
Alcohol was offered all the time, any time. When I asked Jenni if she took up the opportunity she replied, “I mean yeah. I know Winona’s crazy, and I drank a lot in Winona…but I could not keep up with drinking all the time at the mansion. I can’t hang, I just can’t. It’s literally like running a marathon”. When talking about that Puerto Rican mansion Jenni said, “It was UN-REAL…It was gorgeous, but crazy. Wired up everywhere, anything you did, any conversation you had was recorded. There is not one square inch of that mansion that isn’t being recorded…sitting in the shower and just look up and wave like ‘hey guys!’ …but it taught me to be far more carefree”. She said the craziest part of the whole experience was the equipment they used; “At all times there was 300(+) crew members just hanging out and helping, they all knew you and you didn’t know them. Everyday they wore a microphone, there was a tiny baby microphone hidden underneath your bra.”
Jenni explained how Mondays are now full of anxiety. “Definitely the hardest part of the experience is all day Monday thinking to myself about how the footage will be edited. They can literally use whatever footage they have of you and edit it in a way to make you appear how they want. Of course I’m going to worry about how they’ll make viewers perceive me, but you just have to remember and have faith that those people you know and know you closely, will be able to see through the editing”. So she’s a nursing student straight out of college…does she have a job? Hell yes, she’s an RN at a hospital in Minneapolis and was lucky enough to take a quick leave of absence since she took a temporary casual position which made her capable of swinging into the show. Being gone a little over a month and a half worked out smooth with work, and she started back up where she left off after filming the show. Jenni thinks of her job as her escape: “as soon as I walk through those doors, there’s such a relief. I can focus on what matters–my patients. I don’t have to sit and worry about what’s being posted about me or what will be aired soon, nursing is my escape from the real world, and reality life.” Of course I had to ask about her spark on the show thus far, Anthony, but you’re going to have to tune in on Monday nights at 9pm to see the relationship unravel.