Ryan Seacrest Could Replace Matt Lauer, And It's All The Ladies' Fault
LatestFans of the Today Show should start preparing themselves now: Matt Lauer’s contract is up at the end of 2012, and it’s as-yet unknown whether or not he’ll renew. NBC is thinking ahead, however, and courting a possible replacement: Ryan Seacrest. As if he hadn’t already violated our televisions enough?
Whether you realize it or not, Ryan Seacrest’s well-manicured fingertips are everywhere: he has a daily radio show, hosts American Idol, fills in on E! and Larry King, produces Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and appears as a celebrity contestant on practically every reality game show. He’s also the host of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve — as soon as that big ball drops in a few weeks, Seacrest will have managed to taint 2012. The guy’s fare may in nature be relatively harmless, innocuous even, but his increasing omnipresence is a little creepy.
But Seacrest’s a part of the NBC Universal family, and he’s profitable. Why not put him on NBC’s most profitable show, The Today Show? Sticky dollar bills for everyone! And so the courtship begins, with various avenues for Seacrest’s potential involvement — from random segments (easy to stomach) to the anchor’s chair (choking on your morning Activia).
No one’s under the illusion that the Today Show is a serious news show; out of its four hours on air, only the first (7 AM) really focuses on hard news. And by “hard news,” I mean that which does not involve cooking segments or celebrity interviews. Matt Lauer and Ann Curry own this territory, and they cover it pretty well, given that it’s a morning show. And even the celebrity stuff comes off better when it’s covered by either of these two — Lauer, in particular, has a sick way of making a sit-down with Dina Lohan seem like an issue of national security.