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If, like me, you can't comprehend the success of Ryan Seacrest because he has no discernible talent, then this will really perplex: he's quickly becoming "the next Dick Clark, Merv Griffin, Larry King, for our generation". So he says to TV critic Tom Shales. But who he's really mimicking is Rupert Murdoch. The Viscount of Vapidness is paid an estimated $12.5 million annually just for hosting American Idol, not counting all the ancillary gigs he's lined up. (Whereas Simon Cowell makes $42 million a year, from Idol and other sources.) 
But Seacrest has so many gigs: a 3-year, $21 million deal with E! Entertainment Network to host its special event programming and Red Carpet coverage. The reason he fronts the E! News show is because he has a production deal with that network and shares the ownership in those shows. He also has investments in eight Southern California restaurants, runs a half-dozen media companies and recently launched "The 'R' Line" fashion label. In April, he's taking 3 hours of his daily 5-hour L.A. radio show national, via syndication, and as an unprecedented part of the deal his advertising company retains 10 minutes of the commercial time on the show to sell on its own, so that the profit goes right back to Seacrest and not through any network or syndicator. "I have great relations with advertisers, so I started an advertising company to sell our own time in my shows and build that business up in the next couple of months." That's why he does that insipid toothpaste commercial. "I want to have a relationship with Procter & Gamble because they have so many different products. We have inventory in this new syndicated radio show that I'm going to launch and I'd like to sell some of that back to P&G directly." Seacrest now has lotsa little companies: Ryan Seacrest Productions, "On Air With Ryan Seacrest," which employs about 20 people; "Top 40" radio has a staff of about 15; Sea Calm, which is the radio division; and Seacrest Sales, which is the sales division. He says. "The challenge for me is taking all these parts and figuring out how they can come together to make a big media company."
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Niki writes “If, like me, you can’t comprehend the success of Ryan Seacrest because he has no discernable talent,” Clearly his talent is making money.
He does have quite a lot of talent…as a business person. He just happens to be prettier than Murdoch, so we expect him to be a talented entertainer. Tough being good-looking isn’t it?
Griffin, King and Clark had no discernible talents either.
“If, like me, you can’t comprehend the success of Ryan Seacrest because he has no discernable talent, then this will really perplex…”
C’mon Nikki, please tell. What is Ryan sorely lacking? If you ask me, he’s underappreciated for his wit and easily holds his own against Simon (who likely has writers for all of his quips). In fact, w/o Ryan, Simon would sound like a bloated British buffoon.
Sounds like you’re casting the evil eye, Nikki. Why can’t we all enjoy success? I’m inspired by Ryan’s success.
More power to him. He earned his success the old fashioned way– by being smart.
A couple of Seacrest’s major bloopers: 1) not recognizing Gary Busey at the Academy Awards this year and frightening Jennifer Garner instead of introducing them, and 2) repeatedly complaining (loudly) about Angeline Jolie not smiling (as her mother lay dying) about a year ago. Talk about talent!!!
He’s a talentless turd who lucked into the top TV show (the least paid people on “Idol” are the ones who people REALLY tune in for, the contestants).
Now he’s sending his PR people to message boards to tell us how great he is? I’ve never met one person who likes this donkey.
*shrug* I don’t think Ryan is the next Dick Clark or Bob Hope, but he’s a nice guy who relates well with people and does reasonably well hosting things. I can’t say I’d toss great praise at him like is being done, but I also don’t really understand all the hating, either. Watch him or don’t. Like him or don’t. I think he’s well-meaning and likeable, and I have no issues with him.
“Griffin, King and Clark had no discernible talents either.”
?
Merv had a luv-uh-ly bunch of coconuts.
Another talentless moron making boatloads of cash. Ain’t America grand?
Meanwhile, people are starving, having their homes foreclosed on, losing their jobs and having to make the decision to either pay for a train ticket to work or eat tonight.
Disgusting.
I don’t know why Ryan Seacrest is trying to pass himself off as the likes of such equal no talents as Larry King and Dick Clark. You’d think he’d try to pass himself off as someone with some actual talent. But I guess not.
Considering all that he does, I’m surprised he hasn’t dropped dead from exhaustion. Then again, he probably doesn’t do anything and just has his “people” do it all.
It wouldn’t surprise me for him to get in some kind of IRS trouble down the line.
There are 4 secrets to Seacrest’s success.
1. Seacrest’s the host, but he’s not the star and he knows it. He makes no attempt to outshine the American Idol contestants, he just does his intros, makes cracks at easy target Simon Cowell, and keeps things moving as smoothly as possible.
2. Unlike most celebs he’s not actively seeking to annoy the general public to prove his self-worth. You don’t see him driving drunk, making anti-semitic comments to cops, going in and out of rehab, or going off the Pakistan to pose for a photo-op with Osama Bin Ladin.
3. He knows his success is based on the public’s goodwill. Look at the pictures, he’s smiling, signing autographs and being as friendly and polite as possible to American Idol fans. They’ll go home, talk about “how nice that Seacrest fellow was” and give him and his various ventures a shot.
4. He appears to know that it won’t last forever. Which is why he works so damn hard at so many things. He’s got a retirement to plan for and doesn’t want to end up as the morning DJ in Battle Creek Michigan when he’s 50.
Basically, Seacrest knows his place, and he works hard at it. Americans love a hard worker, even when he’s not a star.
I certainly respect the man. He’s a genius of a businessperson. He’s been able to convert his bland, non-offensive personality into a multi-million dollar industry. If only all of us did so much with so little.
Wow. Brad Grey needs to call Seacrest’s PR people writing on this board. He could use their spin.
As I hate to admit it, Seacreast actually is a great host. Let’s be honest here – anyone doing his type of work would never be admired. I find him pretty funny, witty, savvy, American pie. This is a case of give credit where credit is due.
He’s successful because the guy’s a worker, he does TV and radio and merchandising. He wants to make it big and get bigger, common to a lot of people here in town.
He works incredibly hard and doesn’t cheat people. That’s enough in my book.
As someone who’s had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Seacrest, I must concur with many of the commentators. The man is an absolute class act and frankly doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. Not only that, he makes IDOL watchable, which is more than I can say for our Canadian version of Ryan Seacrest, Ben Mulroney.
Nikki,
Love your blog and respect your opinion but I think you’re being way too harsh on Seacrest.
He’s a host – TV and radio – and he’s the best at it.
What would he need to do to win you over?
He does his job and he does it well. He’s also clearly a very hard worker.
I respect anybody who can succeed in “live” mediums. He’s on the radio “live” daily and on TV in front of millions “live” weekly.
Most of the people we consider “talented” are actually protected by and created by great Hollywood editors.
Something to consider.
Tim
Why do we care what Nikki thinks about Seacrest? If you’ve EVER read DHD before you know she hates success. She hates CEO’s, moguls, loves to wax poetic about “CEO porn”. Capitalism scares the hell out of her.
Seacrest is a brilliant marketer who’s comfortable on camera.
Talentless? You mean like a blogger?
I’d be annoyed by his success and omnipresence, but he comes across as very likable and nice. It’s bothersome that he’s everywhere, but it’s hard to dislike him personally from a distance, and I think that’s a big part of his success. “Furious D” is right on as well. He’s striking while the iron’s hot. Plus, he was great in “Knocked Up”. Come to think of it, I respect him a great deal. Most people in his position would want to work less, not more.
Oh please. Get over yourselves!
I met Ryan through mutual friends a month or so after he arrived in LA from Atlanta. He was a ’star’ waiting to happen even then. I saw it and so did everyone else who met him because he had ‘it’…that indefinable charisma that so few really have. Within in no time he was booked to host a syndicated show. It never got on the air but we all knew it was only a matter of time before he hit with something big.
I haven’t spoken to him in quite a while (no longer live in LA) but I’m proud of him for building the blocks of an empire. The public doesn’t buy into a personality for long if it ‘ain’t there.’ Ryan’s gonna be around for a very very long time. And deservedly so.
Um, Richard, “Griffin, King and Clark had no discernible talents either.”
Okay, Merv Griffin created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, two of the most successful syndicated shows of all time.
Larry King’s talent is in marrying and divorcing women.
And Dick Clark’s talent is being the cheapest, most miserly person in Hollywood…allegedly.
I find him really annoying, where as Merv Grifin and Dick Clarke were always warm and inviting. I liked Merv’s self deprecating humor. Ryan is far too into himself for me.
It’s a positive that he’s so great at making money, because when that’s your only talent, it’s a matter of time before people catch on. But by then it won’t matter, he’ll be entrenched.
And by the way, as much as I dislike Ben Mulroney, and I definitely do…watching Seacrest first makes Mulroney watchable.
I find Seacrest disingenuous in his interactions. Mulroney looks like he can’t believe he’s got the gig.
The Seacrest fan club is out in full force on this board! Truly bizarre comments here – he must have paid his PR firm to get on this board and respond. The guy is a no-talent loser. He is Carson Daly. His financial success shows just how pathetic our country has become. I can’t wait for the day when, like his annoyingly un-hip sign-off, Seacrest is truly “out.”
Ryan Seacrest’s talent is that he doesn’t rock the boat nor make much of an impression. He’s the model of the new blank slate host who stays out of the way, is reasonably comfortably on camera, and is ready and willing to turn himself into a mouthpiece and teleprompter reader. The fact that he’s come as far as he has is a credit to his timing and his connections and his catchy name. I’m not sure there’s much to really HATE here, but there’s nothing to admire (unless your bar for what you admire in others is really low). The guy’s a plain white canvas.
I don’t have a problem with RS at all. I don’t get why some would have a problem with him. He might not be a talented actor or writer or whatever, but, he works extremely hard at what he does. He has a work ethic that rivals Sean Combs. Did he luck out with the success of AI? Yes, and No. He lucked out that it was so successful, but, he was much more likeable than the idiot that cohosted with him that first year.
How would you like to be Dunkledork and seeing RS so successful while Dunkledork has completely dissappeared.
RS annoys me at times, but, I’ll never begrudge the guy because of the hard work he does.
Seacrest is a great example of someone “making” their own luck via hard work. He sees the opportunities and takes them, who can argue with that? More power to him, I wish him continued success.
I guess Seacrest has to put out a hip-hop cd or be in a movie to have “talent” Nikki ?
He sticks to what he knows, like you.Nikki – when is your rap cd gonna come out so we can truly judge whether you have “talent”?
He sells himself, a true talent of any business person, but I wouldn’t be sad to see him drift away from American Idol. His Seacrest Out line is getting so over-used that people are forgetting that it was dumb in the first place!
I think a lot of people could do what Seacrest does, but not as many could sell themselves and work hard enough to get to where he is.