Ryan Seacrest: Far from idle
"I forgot to pee. That's what I meant to do."
Forgive Ryan Seacrest, a stickler for details, for letting this one pass him by. It's just that he has a lot on his mind these days: two TV shows, two radio shows, and of course his hair. We've just stepped into his silver Mercedes in the parking garage of L.A.'s Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex, and these are his words as he turns the ignition, firing up the gauges on the dash in front of him. All needles jump, except for the one over the little gas pump. Yes, it seems we're running on empty.
Welcome to Ryan Seacrest's world.
"I realize how tired I am when I'm done," Seacrest, 29, says of his ultra-busy workday. We've been shadowing him throughout this mid-April day, from his 5 a.m. drive-time radio show on Los Angeles' KIIS-FM to his nationally syndicated TV chat-fest, On-Air, and now we're gliding down Hollywood Boulevard on our way to the set of American Idol, the show that made his little-boy smile a pop-culture fixture. The hair, if you're wondering, is classic Seacrest - overstyled bed head sprinkled with blond highlights - as are the tightly fitted clothing and J.Lo-esque shades. He's never looked more "metrosexual," a term he doesn't shy from, and in the heart of Hollywood our discussion turns to exactly that.
"This is a town that doesn't care if you make it or the next guy does," says Seacrest, a radio guy at heart who recently filled out his workweek by taking over for icons Rick Dees (on the KIIS morning show) and Casey Kasem (on American Top 40). "It's up to you to really manifest the destiny, and so I am driven by the fear of failure."
It's 2:15 p.m. now, and we're pulling into Seacrest's marked parking spot in front of the Idol set. After pausing briefly for pictures, Seacrest is ready to begin what he calls the "fourth quarter" of his day. But first he must find a bathroom ...
The routine
This day no different from the rest, Seacrest's alarm clock goes off around 4 a.m., and within minutes he's making the short drive from his Hollywood Hills home to Hollywood & Highland, home to both the radio show and On-Air. Seacrest sits, clears his throat and leans in to the mike: "Seacrest here, good morning!" And for the next five hours he's spinning records, jabbing with sidekick Ellen K., sipping from his venti-sized Starbucks Americano and, quite simply, having a lot of fun.
The highlight of the show? An interview gone horribly wrong. At 8:30 a.m., Seacrest gets on the phone with a man who claims to be the brother of the bride whose Las Vegas wedding reception was reportedly ruined by the recent blackout at the Bellagio hotel. The man describes, among other travesties, the melting of the cream-filled wedding cake, adding that his family wants the $50,000 it paid the Bellagio returned and the cake remade "to be consumed by the family." Throughout this rather absurd interview, Seacrest's team tries to hold back its laughter out of respect, like children at church, but faint snickering makes it into the caller's offended ear.
"To hear the laughing," he starts, "makes me really just very angry, so when you get married - if you ever do, which I doubt will happen - I hope your cream-filled cake spills across the floor and then your bride slips in it, landing on her face. ... This interview is over! [Click.]" Amid exploding laughter, Seacrest, his eyes watery, says, "Well, I wish you the best of luck," and cuts to commercial. "I often find," Seacrest says, "that the moments that go wrong on the air can be the best moments."
At 10 a.m. we follow Seacrest to his upstairs office, where, while eating breakfast (egg whites and mixed fruit) at his desk, he meets with a bevy of On-Air producers and is briefed on the script and guests, who include actress Melissa Joan Hart and 13-year-old Tyler Crotty, a sudden celebrity after standing behind President Bush during a March speech, yawning his way through the whole thing.
On-Air goes off without a hitch. Seacrest spends the next hour signing autographs for the audience and going over the show with producers, and then it's off to the Benz and over to Idol, where, after a quick sushi lunch, it's time for his most demanding job.
The big show
Idol is one of the top-rated shows in the country, and watching Seacrest navigate his way through its process makes you wonder whether that would still be the case if anybody else were at the hosting helm. He is in constant motion, going from meetings to rehearsal to makeup to more meetings and then to the show, and despite so many people buzzing around him at all times with all sorts of requests and directions, he seems to pull it all off with extraordinary ease. The taping is seamless, finishing at 7 p.m., and before the audience has a chance to filter out of the studio and clutter up the parking lot, Seacrest is back in the car, headed for home.
But his workday is not over. A stack of faxes regarding the next day's shows awaits him at home, and after a quick dinner with girlfriend Shana Wall, our Hollywood workaholic plans to read it all in time to be in bed by 9:30. Meanwhile, back at the Idol studio, Crotty, standing beside his father, rubs his eyes and lets out the yawn that made him famous, not knowing just how much a certain someone in tight clothing and overstyled hair can relate.
© USA Weekend Magazine, May 16, 2004
Photo: © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com
