{alltv} The Nate Berkus TV formula: Style plus substance

NEW YORK — Clad in dark jeans and black patent-leather sneakers, Nate Berkus bounces out from backstage at his new eponymous talk show, beaming at his audience and glad-handing the front row.

But Berkus, wrapped in a snug gray Mister Rogers cardigan, hangs out in a different style of daytime TV neighborhood, one that's more Elle Decor than Ellen. Gone is any institutional office lobby furniture. Instead, there's a pair of distressed luggage leather chairs, a worn wooden bench turned coffee table and a modern taupe linen sofa. Polished dark wood lines the floor, while molding lines the white walls, giving the room the feeling of an airy Upper West Side prewar apartment, vs. a windowless Hell's Kitchen TV studio.

Berkus, a Chicago-based interior designer, is the latest Oprah regular, after Phil McGraw, Rachael Ray and Mehmet Oz, to land his own hosting gig (The Nate Berkus Show premieres today in syndication). For Berkus, building a set that is anything other than chic would be like Martha Stewart serving a turkey with no taste.

The set is "going to be its own little character on the show," says Berkus, 38, sitting before the taping in a comparatively hideous hair-and-makeup room: drab maroon seating, dreary gray carpet, wilted flower bouquet. ("This is my best work," he jokes.) His work room, on the other hand, a months-long collaboration with set designer Jeff Hall, is "fresh, clean, happy. There's room to breathe" — quite literally, considering the twin "living walls" of green, living foliage. By mixing vintage pieces and new finds, "spaces should feel assembled, not instant," he says.

Accessible and attractive

It's a credo that could be applied to Nate itself, which was born out of nine years and 82 episodes as Winfrey's home-makeover maestro. The more than 100 transformations he did on Oprah were "always about a bit more than paint color," Berkus says. "For me, it's very much about the stories" — about, say, the Kentucky man who is raising his twin newborns by himself after losing his wife during childbirth. (Berkus decorated the nursery.)

The show "goes beyond design," Berkus says. "The show is about lifestyle. It's about living well."

But how to stand out amid a cluttered talk-show circus? "I feel very bullish about this in that he is a wonderfully warm, accessible human being," says Holly Jacobs of Sony Pictures Television, which distributes Nate— which, she says, has seen overflow audiences of late. "He is empathetic and he is gorgeous," says Jacobs, who calls his "one of the greatest faces of all time" — animated and elastic, with eyes as blue as the hyacinths sprouting from a vase on his set.

Executive producer Terry Murphy calls him a mix of "old-school" Phil Donahue— "women are sitting there, starry-eyed" — and new-media Jon Stewart. "He can go from being a sensitive, kind, heartfelt listener to someone where you're crying it's so funny."

'He's very open, very natural'

But beneath the boyish good looks is depth, says Erik Logan, Harpo Productions president. "He's got substance behind him" — not to mention Winfrey, who is "ecstatic" about Nate's prospects, Logan says.

During a recent taping, guest Jamie Lee Curtis bounds out to the stage and onto Berkus' coffee-and-cream cotton and wool rug (an HSN offering). Curtis looks around and coos, "This is beautiful!"

She's here to chat about her skills as an "organization maven" (and author and actress — she has a movie and a children's book to plug). "I mean, stain removal turns me on," she says. "I'm in recovery for snorting Goo Gone," the de-gunker.

"We are kindred spirits," Berkus says — no matter that, as he reveals later, they've never met before. Curtis, 51, hugs him before cupping his cheeks with her hands.

When, while demonstrating how to create a file of flattened, soup-filled Ziploc bags for the freezer, the You Again star spills "a little schmutz," as she puts it, on a white marble-topped kitchen island, Berkus reassures her. "I'll clean that," he says. "You're in my home."

Sitting on a sleek dove-gray banquette across from the banter is audience member Chris Outridge, a filmmaker from Brooklyn. He's impressed by Berkus' ability to command his home — er, set. "He's very open, very natural," says Outridge, 27. "He hasn't skipped a beat. He's been on-point every time.

"I think he's going to go far."