Factoid:This episode airs today. Check local listings for time and channel.

“I saw Oprah’s butt,” she said. “She wasn’t wearing a belt on her pants, so when she stood up, her butt fell out. That was funny.”-Krista Kukowski.

” I guess I really didn’t understand that you can make a difference,” Krista Kukowski on voting.

Advertisement

Oprah Winfrey has been full of surprises lately.

Earlier this month, the talk-show giant gave away 276 Pontiac G6s to members of her studio audience. The gifts, Winfrey has said, were part of her “wildest dreams” season.

SIUC student Krista Kukowski said she became jealous when she watched the mass giveaway.

Kukowski, who is a junior in radio-television from Greenville, has been a fan of the show since she was in elementary school. After watching the car episode, she logged online to see if there was any upcoming shows she could attend.

One upcoming episode, she said, caught her eye.

The topic was voting, and executives wanted to find women who believed casting a vote does not make a difference in political elections.

Kukowski was one such woman.

Advertisement*

“I think it is a big risk to take,” she said. “Just because they say they are going to change things that doesn’t mean once they are elected, they are going to have that same view.”

Though Kukowski is apathetic toward voting, she is not the only one.

About 51 percent of the American population who could vote, did so during the 2000 presidential election, a slight increase when compared to the 49 percent turnout in 1996.

Kukowski, along with three other SIUC students, left early Friday morning to attend a taping of the show later that day.

Once in Chicago, where Winfrey’s show is taped, Kukowski said 300 unregistered women voters packed into the waiting room, a place they all remained for more than two hours. The room was overheated, causing one audience member to faint.

They all thought that they were going to the studio for the taping when the door opened and in walked Winfrey and guest Cameron Diaz.

“The crowd went wild,” Kukowski said. “I was screaming because I love Cameron Diaz.”

But a dramatic entrance with a movie star was not the only trick Winfrey had up her sleeve. Once everyone was directed downstairs to the studio, Winfrey later introduced her other “surprise” guests – actress Drew Barrymore, recording artist Christina Aguilera and rap mogul P. Diddy.

Each celebrity spoke about the importance of voting. This election will be the first for Aguilera, and P. Diddy gave each audience member and Winfrey guest a “Vote or Die” T-shirt.

But one guest, Kukowski said, was really passionate about getting the word out – especially to young women voters.

“Cameron got really emotional about it,” she said. “She started crying, ‘our future is in their hands.'”

But an assortment of celebrities was not the only thing Kukowski saw that day.

“I saw Oprah’s butt,” she said. “She wasn’t wearing a belt on her pants, so when she stood up, her butt fell out. That was funny.”

Kukowski had never been to Chicago prior to the taping of the Winfrey show but said she really enjoyed herself. At the end of the show, she and the three women she came with walked away with a different perspective – and a voter registration card.

“I was going there with the intent just to see Oprah. I didn’t think my opinion was going to be swayed,” she said. “I am a really emotional person too. Crying really gets to me. So when Cameron started crying and they explained their positions on voting and how important it is, I guess I really didn’t understand that you can make a difference.”