INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

How Ryan Seacrest Could Juggle ‘American Idol,’ Kelly Ripa, And New Radio Deal

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 06:00 PST, May 6, 2017

America is about to see even more of Ryan Seacrest in the coming months and years, as one of the most popular radio personalities is reportedly being courted to host American Idol once again.

As network giants NBC and FOX – and now also ABC – are fighting for the rights to revive the singing competition TV series, Ryan Seacrest is reportedly being eyed to become the new host of American Idol, which is expected to return on the air in March, 2018.

Ryan Seacrest is signing new lucrative TV and radio deals as if he’s giving away autographs on some red carpet show. This past Monday, Seacrest started co-hosting Live! with Kelly Ripa, and on the same day he landed a new multi-million-dollar deal with iHeart Radio, according to Radio Online.

While that $73 million deal will reportedly keep Ryan Seacrest busy for the next three years, the deal, as well as his new gig with Kelly Ripa, hasn’t removed him from the list of likely hosts of American Idol Season 16.

TMZ learned that ABC, which airs Kelly Ripa’s Live!, “is far along in the negotiations” with Fremantle, the company that produces American Idol, which ended Season 15 in April last year on FOX.

While the report seems to suggest that ABC is the likely winner of the rights for American Idol and is ready to make it official in the next few weeks, the network wants to bring Ryan Seacrest onboard the project.

Although Ryan Seacrest is pretty busy nowadays – his New York-based Live! gig with Kelly Ripa and now the new radio deal that happens to be recorded in the same building as Live! – there is still a way for the popular radio personality to become the American Idol Season 16 host even though the singing competition TV show is shot in Los Angeles.

ABC reportedly asked Fremantle to move American Idol to New York so that Ryan Seacrest could work on three projects simultaneously, but the show’s producers refused to.

And ABC does not want to see Ryan Seacrest leave his gig with Kelly Ripa just to host American Idol in L.A., as even former Live! host Regis Philbin gave Seacrest his seal of approval after seeing his debut episode on Monday, according to Page Six.

TMZ also learned that Fremantle wanted to have Ryan Seacrest as the host of American Idol for quite a while now, and that it’s even ready to move its hit singing competition TV show from the usual Wednesday and Thursday nights slot to Sundays, just to make it more comfortable for Seacrest to fly from N.Y.C. to L.A. and back to tape his gig with Kelly Ripa and serve as host on American Idol‘s Season 16 simultaneously.

Although it would be still a struggle for Ryan Seacrest to spend much of the 10 weeks American Idol airs live traveling by plane, it’s very much doable if the Live! co-host wants to get his hands on a yet another lucrative TV deal.

Ryan Seacrest would have to spend Thursdays doing Live! with Kelly Ripa and pre-taping Friday’s show in N.Y.C., then get on a plane to L.A. in the early afternoon and spend the entire day on Friday to prepare for American Idol, which would air on Sundays.

After finishing with American Idol on Sunday, Ryan Seacrest would have to catch a flight back to N.Y.C. at 8 P.M. and land there at about 12 a.m.

Then Ryan Seacrest could sleep peacefully in his N.Y.C. bed and wakes up for the 9 a.m. Live! show with Kelly Ripa on Monday. After finishing with the ABC morning show, Seacrest would again have to catch a flight to L.A. and land there at around 3 p.m.

Ryan Seacrest would then film the results show of American Idol at 5 p.m. and get back to the airport at 9 p.m. to catch a flight back to N.Y.C., where he would film Live! with Kelly Ripa at 9 a.m.

The whole thing works out pretty well for Ryan Seacrest, provided he still has enough energy to have a lifestyle full of flights for 10 consecutive weeks.

[Featured Image by Chris Pizzello/AP Images]

Share this article: How Ryan Seacrest Could Juggle ‘American Idol,’ Kelly Ripa, And New Radio Deal
american idol kelly ripa ryan seacrest
More from Inquisitr