Is Kelly Ripa in danger of losing her new "Live!" co-host, Ryan Seacrest, now that ABC has broadcasting rights to "American Idol"? On the same day that Seacrest was announced as her permanent co-host, news surfaced that he had signed a $73 million contract with iHeartRadio. Two days later the network won the bidding war with Fox over getting "American Idol" to be part of its television line-up.
Will history repeat itself on "Live!"?
Kelly Ripa was betrayed previously by ABC when she learned at the same time as everyone else that Michael Strahan would be leaving the show to join "Good Morning America." With Ryan Seacrest getting so many contracts at once, there's a sense that the same thing could happen a second time with Kelly's co-host.
A source told RadarOnline that Kelly is "livid" over finding out that producers wanted Ryan for "Live!" mainly because they wanted to secure him in the event they won rights to "American Idol." She was allegedly blindsided because she was led to believe that producers wanted Seacrest to reel in big-name celebrity guests.
Owners of the "American Idol" franchise want Ryan to host the show because he's the de facto star of the show. ABC hoped to get the show moved to New York due to Ryan's schedule, but the owners insisted that the show remains in LA. Hopefully, it won't pose a problem because logistics was something Ryan was worried about.
It hasn't been officially announced that Ryan Seacrest would be the one hosting "American Idol," but it's a no-brainer at this point.
Everyone wants Ryan to be on the show since he's the face of it.
For Seacrest to make his hosting duties on the reality competition show work, he'll have to fly from LA Sunday night, catch just four hours of sleep, and arrive in New York to tape "Live!" with Kelly. He then would go back to the airport, fly to LA, and do it all over again on Tuesday.
On Thursdays, Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa would tape the Friday segment of "Live!" before Ryan jets back to LA.
Despite RadarOnline's latest report about a source claiming that "special arrangements" are being made for Ryan Seacrest to host "Live!" by taping Friday's episode on Thursdays, TMZ reveals that Kelly has already been doing this for "a very long time." So, pre-taped shows on Thursday are nothing unusual.
Ryan Seacrest will be juggling a heavy workload, but he won't be leaving Kelly Ripa in a lurch. "American Idol" won't air until March 2018 and Ryan's insane schedule will be limited to 10 weeks.
