Kelly and Ryan begin new Live season
Live with Kelly and Ryan
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NEW YORK On his first appearance on the soon-to-be-rechristened Live with Kelly and Ryan, Ryan Seacrest had something rare for someone who seems born to be on TV: butterflies.
Stepping on camera after Kelly Ripa broke the news of her new co-host on May 1, Seacrest was seized by an odd, intrusive notion: a desire “to just get invited back tomorrow.”
Ripa was jittery, too. She’d been presiding over Live for — can it really be this long? — 16 years, first alongside founding host Regis Philbin, then, for a few years, Michael Strahan, then, the past year, paired with no fewer than 68 tryouts from whom Seacrest had been chosen.
“As the show began, it was such a secret,” recalls Ripa. “I was so nervous that I was going to blurt it out before he came out, and ruin everything.”
She didn’t, and he was back the next day, and the next. On Monday Live with Kelly and Ryan launched a new season — its 30th in national syndication — of goes-down-easy chat and interviews.
By now, the instant rapport the pair radiated four months ago is simply taken for granted by all concerned.
“I don’t feel like there was a break-in period,” says Ripa, still seated beside Seacrest on the Live set after a recent broadcast. “I spent my first five years on the show terrified. He came to it, Day 1, ready. I feel so fortunate and thankful.”
“I’m excited to see her every day,” Seacrest jumps in. “We already knew each other, but I discover something new about her every day.”
That discovery process is the so-called “host chat,” a daily batting-the-breeze between the cohosts that begins each show and has stood as the signature of Live since it began.
“There are moments,” says Ripa, “where we come in totally prepared and rested. And moments when we come in NOT rested and totally NOT prepared — if they gave PhDs in screw-ups, we’d be adjunct professors. But those are the moments that are so revealing.”
“There has to be a level of trust and respect to do what we’re supposed to do in those first 20 or 22 minutes,” Seacrest notes.
“With Ryan, I walk into every conversation with ease,” Ripa says.
“There is no TIP-TOEING!” Seacrest laughs.
There is certainly no tip-toeing by Seacrest, a legendary multitasker: He stays on the run.
After joining up with Live, he agreed to return as host of the upcoming revival of American Idol, whose new network, ABC, is, like Live, owned by Disney. His Ryan Seacrest Productions has signed a multi-year overall deal with ABC Studios.
Meanwhile, he will continue his syndicated daily radio show, as well as a nationally syndicated Top 40 radio show, all conveniently broadcast from his iHeartMedia studio in the same Manhattan complex where Live originates.
He also hosts and executive produces ABC’s annual Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, and is a busy producer of series in which he doesn’t appear, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians and its many spawn.
Still, Seacrest considers Live a special duty.
“There are very few opportunities to do what we get to do on Live,” he says. “I’m 42 years old, and to find something new on a daily basis in a medium I love is exciting.”