Media royalty. Ryan Seacrest has dominated the leisure business for greater than twenty years — each in entrance of and behind the digicam.
Born in Atlanta in 1974, the Emmy-winning producer started his first radio internship whereas nonetheless in highschool. After graduating, he studied journalism on the College of Georgia, however he dropped out earlier than ending his diploma and moved to Los Angeles to start out his profession in earnest.
The chance paid off, as a result of by 1993 he was already on TV internet hosting the ESPN collection Radical Out of doors Problem. One 12 months later, he started cohosting the children’ sport present Gladiators 2000, and from then he was not often with no TV gig.
Whereas Seacrest’s voice was a radio mainstay for a lot of the late Nineteen Nineties, his actual breakout second got here in 2002 when he turned the host of a brand new actuality competitors collection referred to as American Idol. The present was an on the spot hit, launching the careers of artists together with Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia Barrino and Jordin Sparks.
“The primary season stands out to me as a result of we went on the air unknown,” the On Air With Ryan Seacrest host wrote in The Hollywood Reporter in February 2022, reflecting on Idol’s twentieth anniversary. “About halfway by means of the season, it began to generate comparatively massive numbers in primetime. We had been bowled over by the machine that it was turning into and the success; it was all so unknown — even to us.”
The New Yr’s Eve star added that he wasn’t even positive what to do when it was time to announce the inaugural winner. “I didn’t know easy methods to ship the information as a result of it was the primary time, however then it rained fireworks, and this big celebration started, and he or she sang ‘A Second Like This,’” Seacrest recalled. “I get emotional fairly simply, however I bought actually emotional in that second.”
The Punk’d alum continued internet hosting Idol after its 2018 transfer from Fox to ABC whereas additionally cohosting Dwell With Kelly and Ryan with Kelly Ripa. He additionally took over Dick Clark’s New Yr’s Rockin’ Eve after the late Dick Clark suffered a stroke that affected his speech.
In February 2023, Seacrest shocked followers when he introduced that he can be leaving Dwell With Kelly and Ryan after practically six years. “Working alongside Kelly over the previous six years has been a dream job and one of many highlights of my profession,” the Kardashians producer mentioned in a press release on the time. “She has been a tremendous accomplice, pal and confidant, and though we are going to at all times be part of one another’s lives, I’ll miss our mornings collectively.”
Seacrest continued: “I additionally need to thank Michael Gelman and your entire workers and crew — we’ve made recollections to final a lifetime, met among the most unimaginable individuals and had the warmest welcome into the properties of so many viewers throughout America. It’s been a memorable trip and now I’m excited to go the baton to Kelly’s ‘actual’ husband, Mark [Consuelos].”
His closing episode of Dwell aired in April. Two months later, Sony Footage Tv named Seacrest as Pat Sajak’s alternative on Wheel of Fortune following the unique host’s retirement in 2024.
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