NEW YORK — Seacrest in!
Ryan Seacrest will be back hosting American Idol when it returns for its first season on ABC. Kelly Ripa made the announcement on Thursday's Live with Kelly and Ryan, which she has co-hosted with Seacrest since he joined her in May.
"I am happy to confirm ... that Ryan Seacrest is returning as the host of American Idol," said Ripa as the studio audience whooped.
Seacrest said he was excited to be doing it again.
"I don't know if you've ever been in a 15-year relationship and then, for a reason that you really don't know, you break up," he said. "I thought, 'Gosh, it would be great to get back together at some point.'"
Seacrest worked on Idol during its smash-hit run on Fox from 2002 through 2016. Reclaiming that job now gives him an additional role in the Disney family, which owns ABC and produces the syndicated Live.
His potential return to Idol had sparked much speculation since ABC announced in May that it would revive the talent competition. The program airs from Los Angeles, and Live airs weekday mornings from New York. But the 42-year-old Seacrest is no stranger to a packed work schedule and cross-country flights.
"You can have all the tickets you want," he told Ripa, "and you can come back and forth with me any weekend."
Seacrest will also continue his syndicated Los Angeles morning-drive-time radio show, as well as a nationally syndicated Top 40 radio show, from his iHeartMedia studio in the same Manhattan complex where Live is telecast. He also hosts and executive produces ABC's annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest and is a producer of series in which he doesn't appear, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians and its many spin-offs.
ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey called Seacrest's talent "limitless, and I can't think of a more appropriate person to honor the Idol legacy as it takes on new life than the man who has been there through it all."
On Fox, Idol dominated TV in the 2000s and minted stars like Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson while making its judges, such as Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, household names. It was the No. 1 series for nine years, peaking with 30 million viewers each episode in 2006. But by its last season, the average audience had dipped to 11 million and skewed older, and NBC's The Voice surpassed it in popularity. Fox eliminated it. Even so, in today's television world, an audience of 11 million would rank it among TV's top 20 shows, a fact that clearly didn't escape ABC's notice.
On the final Fox edition, a hopeful Seacrest told viewers, "Goodbye — for now."
The nationwide search for the first ABC-aired Idol begins next month. ABC has not announced a premiere date.