The Big Picture

Roller Jam
is a new reality competition series with top roller-skating crews vying for $150,000 and $10,000 for their rink.
The show features Jordin Sparks as host, with Johnny Weir and Terrell Ferguson as judges, showcasing roller dancing talent.
Contestants face physical and emotional challenges, needing encouragement like Sparks provided from her Idol experience.

If you’re looking for a different type of reality television experience that doesn’t include the usual dating and home improvement show, Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network is the new content hub of a diversified series. Their latest reality competition series, Roller Jam , which the couple executive produced, is the show to watch. Roller Jam is a six-episode competition series featuring the top roller-skating crews in the country, blending skating with intense choreography as they dance through the decades for a chance to win a $150,000 cash prize, and a $10,000 donation to their local rink. Grammy-nominated singer and actress Jordin Sparks serves as the official host, with two-time U.S. Olympian and national figure skating champion Johnny Weir and roller-skating legend Terrell Ferguson as judges for the first-ever nationwide roller dancing competition on television. They are joined by special celebrity guest judges weekly.

During each episode, skate teams must create all-new routines to perform for the judges in front of a live audience with only one chosen in the end as the ultimate roller dancing team in the country. In March, Collider was invited to an exclusive set visit in New Orleans, LA, and got the chance to chat with the hosts and judges. They gushed about each team, and why this show is unlike any other on television.

Roller Skating Professional, Terrell Ferguson Is Impressed by ‘Roller Jam’s Competition
Image via Max, Magnolia Network

Ferguson began roller skating when he was a kid. His father took him to Venice Beach in California each week, where he’d see teenager doing their best tricks on their skates. It was then that he knew he wanted in on the action. He’s competed worldwide, and 30 years later, Ferguson is happy to guide the new generation competing on the show. And he says the skaters are the real deal. Also, he’s happy the art form is getting a proper platform.

“I appreciate Chip and Joanna bringing this to life. I’ve been in a rink contest and at Venice Beach doing this for decades,” he explains. “But having roller skating professionals on a worldwide stage for millions of people to watch…Roller Jam is literally the first show on TV to do competition skating, so I appreciate it as a skater, and I appreciate it as a judge.

The former Soul Train dancer says the skaters can compete with any athlete, on the rink and out. When asked if the choreography curated by the skaters is as good as an iconic dancer from the popular show, he says they are on the same level, or maybe even beyond.

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“I pay attention to everything because I was a dancer, and I am a skater,” he asserts. “These are both of my worlds and I love both worlds and I give credit when it’s due. There are people in the competition that I’ve actually battled against, or that I helped with a move when they were just coming up in the skating world.”

He says the mentoring part is his favorite aspect of the competition. “Even though I’m old, and I can’t do everything that I used to, you still want to go up to one of them and say, ‘Come here young man, let me show you something.’ They’re taking what me and other OGs in New York, in Atlanta, and all over the place have taught them, and they’re putting it on steroids. These kids are doing phenomenal and doing things I couldn’t even do when I was their age.”

Jordin Sparks Uses Her Reality Competition Background to Help Contestants
Image via Max, Magnolia Networkq

Each week, another skating crew is eliminated. While Sparks may have the “easy” job of not having to be a judge, there were difficult moments she witnessed when a crew was sent home. The American Idol alum naturally wants every crew to take home the cash prize. She understands the pressure to give her best every week, despite how taxing it can be.

“There came a point in the middle of the competition where everybody’s tired because of the physicality of the competition. They don’t get a day off. It’s constant rehearsals, they stretching, then they have to do the show and a dress rehearsal, so it’s a constant movement for them, and after a while the body starts to break down, and they become emotionally spent,” she recalls. “I know with s competition like this, there’s so much stress because you want to win, you care so much about how you look, the judges are critiquing what you’re trying to do….it’s a lot.”

Because of her Idol experience, she was able to empathize more with each crew and give them some words of wisdom. “I asked to speak with them, and the producers allowed that. I was just encouraging them to dig deep and to get past this little hump of being exhausted. When the breakdown happens, it’s usually right on the other side of that where everything opens up and a performer has a breakthrough,” the Sparkle star told us. The show must go on, and it’s important not to let anyone see you sweat.

Johnny Weir Says the Competition in ‘Roller Jam’ Is Similar to His Time in the Olympics
Image via MAX, Magnolia Network

Weir may be a figure skating champion, but his first introduction to the sport was via roller skates. Coming from a rural town in Pennsylvania, activities were limited, so he found fun and solace in skating. “We didn’t have an ice rink, which is what I saw on television, which is what I wanted to do. But downstairs we had a basement that was not carpeted. So it was an unfinished basement with a nice paved floor. And I had roller skates and in the summer, I’d skate down their street down their block,” he remembers. “I would go downstairs and actually try the things that I saw on TV, on the ice. I would try them on rollers downstairs. And over time, that’s when people in the neighborhood started to see me twirling and all that stuff in the driveway. I suggested to my parents I should try figure skating. And really, if I hadn’t had roller skating, I never would have become a figure skater.

Like Sparks, he also understands heightened competition. “On this kind of level with Roller Jam, it’s like the Olympics. It made me remember working my whole life for six minutes in front of the whole world, and my entire life depended on those six minutes. So it’s that kind of pressure that we definitely feel for each of these teams. And I’m the one that has to say who stays and who goes, and it’s really, really hard,” he explains.

Roller Jam airs weekly on Max, with the finale airing on November 14.

Roller Jam (2024) Release Date October 10, 2024 Cast Jordin Sparks , Johnny Weir , Terrell Ferguson Main Genre Competition

Stream on Max