Steve Wilkos

Last night was my first day in the office after the first two parts of my tour. I have to say it was almost surreal. We were out late shooting some segments on kids living in the street which was really exciting because we were trying to reconnect one girl with her father in order to try to get him back involved in her life.

Now I can't wait to start taping in studio and seeing the shows come together. I have to say, at first I was a little bit apprehensive about doing this show but now I'm really geared up for it.

Last week on the tour we hit San Diego where I got to go to the Miramar Marine base. I have to say Miramar has been my favorite part of the tour so far. I haven't been back to a base since I was in the Marines and I immediately felt like I was back again.

There was terrific camaraderie out there and I really would like to do more stuff with the Marines. Just driving on to the base and having to go through the MPs, or passing a chow hall really brought back memories of my service. A lot came back to me that you forget, but a lot of things are different now too. I noticed that they no longer wore boots that needed to be shined every day. I wish I had that during my years.

We then went to LA, which was so overwhelming because the studio wants to prep and coach you to get ready for the critics tour. In the end though, I was told to just go out there and be myself which was what I did and everything seemed to go really well.

In Chicago, we're just not exposed to that kind of press, or walking down a red carpet. So it's kind of crazy in LA but everyone is nice, most of the articles that came out of it were pretty positive about the show.

We then traveled to Phoenix where I got to shave heads at Banner Children's Hospital for St. Baldrick's, as well as have lunch with the station managers at the Fox group. When I first came down here to sell the show, they were quiet and I didn't think they were going to buy my show and when I told them this they said that was the name of the game in order to do business.

I'm really learning aspects of the business that I never saw being second banana on "Springer."

We finished up this leg in Sacramento where we did some terrific radio. There must be a lot of "Springer" fans there because we got a ton of calls. It is really more fun doing radio in studio than as a phoner.

We had a great time.