Seacrest expected to boost Emmy show
Will “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest be able to lure that show’s millions of texting-crazed teens to a three-to-four-hour trophy show in which William Shatner is favored to win best supporting actor in a drama series?
Seacrest – who last week was named official celebrity-sightings correspondent/halftime host for the next Super Bowl – on Monday was picked as host of this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sept. 16.
“Ryan Seacrest appeals to a broad audience, including the highly desirable young adult demographic, so he should serve as a magnet for attracting a diverse array of viewers to our Emmy telecast,” said Dick Askin, chairman and CEO of the television academy.
Last summer’s Emmycast copped about 16 million viewers, the franchise’s second-smallest audience since 1990.
That’s where Seacrest and those texting teens step in.
Last season he hosted 29 of the 33 most-watched individual telecasts of the 2006-07 TV season – all episodes of “American Idol,” the Fox network talent competition that he hosts.
Seacrest is a practically perfect Primetime Emmy Awards host, once you get over whining about him not being a stand-up comic like previous hosts over the past several years (including Conan O’Brien and Ellen DeGeneres).
“One thought I had was to not pretend to be a comic,” Seacrest says. “That’s not what I do.”
He says he’s more of an “in the moment” guy, a “get out of the way” guy, an “accustomed to having a game plan in a live show but never really sticking to it” guy, an “the idea of being the focal point or center of attention by nailing the first 10 minutes ‘cause I want to feel like a superstar is not part of the way I’m going to approach the show at all” guy.
And what about all those Internet murmurings of overexposure?
“Clearly I’m trying to play it under the radar,” Seacrest quips. “I’d define the brand as under-the-radar and subtle.”
In addition to the Super Bowl and the Emmys, the Seacrest brand includes: managing editor and lead anchor of “E! News” on the E! cable network; host of the radio countdown show “American Top 40” and Los Angeles’s No. 1 morning drive-time radio show, “On Air With Ryan Seacrest”; and co-host of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” live from Times Square.
Oh, and guest host on “Larry King Live,” “The Billboard Music Awards” and the “Radio Music Awards.”
The Emmy-hosting gig means Seacrest likely will have to cut back on some of his annual Primetime Emmy Awards red-carpet coverage on E!
He says he still plans to executive-produce that arrivals program, but he may not be seen on air for the entire telecast.