Armed with a $300 million war chest and powerful backers, Ryan

Can an Idol
Be a Mogul?
Armed with a $300 million war chest and powerful
backers, Ryan Seacrest is jump-starting his efforts to
build an entertainment empire. A look at what’s next
from the man who brought the nation the Kardashians.
BY M E R I S S A M A R R
Through his cheery on-air TV persona, Ryan Seacrest is
firmly ensconced as America’s face of lite entertainment.
He calls himself as plain as vanilla ice cream. “Being the
flavor of ice cream that goes with other flavors, that’s my
business,” said the host, poolside at the Trump SoHo
hotel in New York.
Behind this ordinary facade, however, is the kind of
driving ambition that conjures the mailroom-tomogul stories of Hollywood. The onetime chubby
teen from Georgia has clawed his way up the
entertainment ranks, parlaying his innocuous
on-air demeanor into a $65 million-a-year
payday, from gigs ranging from radio shows to
“American Idol.”
Now Mr. Seacrest is entering a new phase of a
long-scripted plan to try to follow in the footsteps
of his mentors—Dick Clark and Merv Griffin.
Their investments in entertainment properties
made Mr. Griffin worth more than $1 billion and
Mr. Clark several hundreds of millions.
Earlier this year, Mr. Seacrest secured a $300 million
private-equity war chest from Bain Capital and Thomas
H. Lee Partners to start making acquisitions. At the same
time, Clear Channel Communications Inc. took a minority
stake in Mr. Seacrest’s production company.
Having taken the much-maligned reality television genre
to new levels of notoriety (he’s the man behind the
Kardashians and the recently debuted “Married to Jonas”),
Mr. Seacrest is turning his sights to producing comedies,
dramas and game shows for television. He’s also become
a presence on Hollywood studio lots, negotiating movies
including “Food Fight,” a “School of Rock”-style comedy
about a chef sentenced to work at a school who revamps
their lunch program.
He hangs out with entertainment bigwigs like Jeffrey
Katzenberg (CEO of DreamWorks Animation) and Robert
Pittman (Clear Channel’s CEO). And he’s backing a liveentertainment channel that debuted last month: AXS
(pronounced “access”).
and cleared out the minibar to make room for his juices. He
also leaves his gym bag in hotel gyms around Los Angeles so
he can exercise wherever he is in the city.
Mr. Seacrest’s career ambitions started when he was a kid
in Dunwoody, Ga., where he tracked the fortunes of two
“I’m building a skyscraper,” he said. His progress so far? entertainment heavyweights on television: Mr. Griffin,
“Perhaps SoHo level,” he said, looking across a series of low- whose name he spotted in the credits of his favorite shows,
slung buildings in downtown Manhattan.
and Mr. Clark, who he watched on “American Bandstand”
and hosting his New Year’s Eve show. He resolved to meet
Mr. Seacrest, 37, is constantly plotting his next act, fearful them both.
his fame could fizzle at any minute. Despite an estimated net
worth in the hundreds of millions—his radio gig alone brings But first, Mr. Seacrest needed to fix something: his flab. “It
in $25 million a year—he is intent on doing as much as he wasn’t tragic by any means, but I was insecure about my
can on-air.
weight as a kid,” he says. In junior high he started to throw
away his lunch in school and sucked an orange at lunchtime.
Lately, that has included taking on more-meaty TV roles. That insecurity played into his drive, he says, as did the fact
Under a deal struck with NBCUniversal this year, he’s that he was never the best at anything at school and found
breaking out of the entertainment universe, helping to cover comfort in being involved in lots of different things. He also
the Olympics as well as contributing to NBC’s “Today” show was told early on by a television executive that he didn’t have
and the network’s election coverage.
what it takes to make it in the entertainment industry.
In a skit earlier this year, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel
joked: “I know why unemployment is over 8%—it’s because
of Ryan Seacrest.”
After an internship at an Atlanta radio station, Mr. Seacrest
dropped out of college and moved to Hollywood where he
landed a string of forgettable hosting roles. At age 22, he
heard Mr. Griffin was producing a teen game show and made
While his brand of programming may not occupy cultural a beeline for the auditions. He got the job—hosting the shorthigh ground, Mr. Seacrest’s popular taste consistently lived “Click”—and convinced the creator of “Jeopardy!” and
strikes a chord with audiences.
“Wheel of Fortune” to allow the young Mr. Seacrest to sit in
on business meetings.
On a recent trip to Miami, Mr. Seacrest flew in on an NBCchartered private jet and spent the evening on Olympics “I said: ‘Wait a minute, aren’t you just in the TV business?’
duty. In a steamy gymnastics studio, he dripped with sweat Of course not, he was a property owner, he had a lot of
and made self-deprecating jokes about his height and lack businesses,” says Mr. Seacrest. “He knew how to leverage his
of chest hair during the taping of an interview with gymnast day job to create something with longevity, and that really
Danell Leyva. He tweeted a photo to his 7.6 million followers stuck with me.”
before hopping in a car to a Cuban restaurant, where he was
ambushed by female fans as young as four while taping Mr. Seacrest got his first shot at a mainstream show in 2001
another segment.
when he auditioned for “Family Feud.” He was offered the
job, but turned it down after hearing that there might be a
The next day, he hosted his four-hour radio show, “On Air better show for him down the road. That turned out to be
With Ryan Seacrest,” from a hotel conference room, hopping “American Idol.” He originally auditioned as a judge but
up and down in his chair while monitoring four screens on persuaded the producers to make him a host alongside Brian
his desk and editing the show during commercial breaks. He Dunkleman, who dropped out after season one.
then jumped on a plane to New Orleans to host “American
Idol” auditions.
“The first day on set, we shared our goals. Mine was to
become an actor. His was to use ‘American Idol’ to get as
By his own admission, Mr. Seacrest is a poor sleeper and many hosting jobs as possible and build an entertainment
checks his iPhone and BlackBerry during the night. He empire,” says Mr. Dunkleman, who says he’s still trying to
recently gave up coffee and started waking up later: at 5 a.m. be an actor.
“I’m the only other sicko he can email at 5 in the morning and Mr. Seacrest’s opportunity to meet Mr. Clark came after
get a response in less than 30 seconds,” says Mr. Katzenberg. “American Idol” made him a household name in 2002 and
At one of their frequent dinners, Mr. Katzenberg, 61, and a he cold-called his childhood idol, asking for a meeting.
fanatic exerciser, told Mr. Seacrest he needed to exercise
more to keep up his pace.
“Hello, I’m Ryan Seacrest. I host ‘American Idol,’ “ he said.
They met, talked business and became friends, going on
Mr. Seacrest carts homemade green vegetable juices around to co-host and co-produce the New Year’s Eve show. Mr.
in a cooler to boost his energy: On his trip to Miami, he Seacrest’s take-away: Ownership of intellectual property is
arrived at his hotel with his cooler draped over his shoulder critical to moguldom.
He came across his first subject for a TV show after meeting
the Kardashians socially. Armed with some video of the
family’s antics at a barbecue, he pitched a show following the
lives of Kim Kardashian and her family to E!, where he was
hosting E! News and red-carpet events. In 2007, “Keeping
Up With the Kardashians” was born.
Critics weren’t always kind about the show. Variety’s Brian
Lowry accused E! of indulging Mr. Seacrest’s “shallow
whims.” “Once you get past Kim’s prominently displayed
assets, there’s not much of a show here, and no discernible
premise,” he wrote in 2007.
Nonetheless, it eventually became E!’s most-watched series,
spawning multiple spinoffs. Kim Kardashian’s wedding
special last year drew a combined 10.5 million viewers and
was E!’s most-watched event ever.
As he plotted his next steps, Mr. Seacrest sought out new
advisers including Craig Jacobson, an entertainment lawyer
with an expertise in assembling television companies. Mr.
Seacrest told Mr. Jacobson he wanted to create a “diversified
business” that wasn’t dependent on him being on camera.
between entertainment, news and sports are not as high
as they once were. But he’s likely to ease himself into these
more journalistic efforts. At the Olympics, he co-hosted the
closing ceremony with veteran sportscasters Bob Costas
and Al Michaels, but mostly he focused on interviews with
athletes like Michael Phelps and “Today” show appearances.
During the elections, he’s unlikely to be interviewing
heavyweight politicians.
Another challenge will be avoiding an audience backlash
from his ubiquity on television.
Mr. Seacrest’s on-screen pursuits nevertheless feed his
budding off-screen empire. For instance, the Kardashians
and subjects of his other shows frequently appear “On Air.”
The Clear Channel radio deal also has opened new business
doors, including the $300 million commitment from its
private-equity backers. It is early days and they’ve just started
to look at targets. They recently joined the bidding for the
television production company founded by Mr. Clark, but
pulled out as rival contenders bid up the price, according to
people familiar with the matter. Clear Channel’s investment
in Mr. Seacrest’s production company, meanwhile, has been
used to bolster its executive and creative ranks.
“It’s uncommon for talent not to think as talent,” Mr.
Jacobson says. “At the end of the day, they’re usually just
interested in where their Winnebago is.”
At a dinner with producer Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan’s
Tribeca Grill, Mr. Seacrest shared ideas for possible dramas
Mr. Seacrest hired his former agent, Adam Sher, to head a and comedies they could make together. After dinner, they
new production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions. They headed upstairs to Mr. Weinstein’s office to rake through
focused on reality shows because they’re easier to own and titles for ideas. They came up with a plan to develop a
less expensive to make.
television version of “The Nanny Diaries,” based on the book
about nannies working on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
This year has been critical to shaping Mr. Seacrest’s ambitions. “He has incredible business acumen,” says Mr. Weinstein,
His three main talent deals came up for renegotiation. “We whose company owns the rights to the project.
decided radio and television are core to our branding and we
need to stay on those two platforms. They drive the rest of At this point in his empire building, Mr. Seacrest feels it’s
the business,” says Mr. Jacobson.
important to remain omnipresent on air. He concedes it
won’t always be that way. “I don’t necessarily think I have to
They renewed his hosting gig on “American Idol” through do the same number of hours of broadcasting I’ve done for
the 2013 season for $15 million a year, keeping him on the the last 10 years for the next 30 years,” he said.
top show on television, albeit with declining viewership. His
Clear Channel radio deal—including the weekday “On Air His two-year relationship with Julianne Hough, a 24-yearWith Ryan Seacrest” and the weekend “American Top 40,” old actress who made her name as a champion on “Dancing
which together draw more than 20 million U.S. listeners a With the Stars” and has since starred in movies including
week—has been reupped for $25 million a year. And they “Rock of Ages,” is forcing him to take more downtime. He
renegotiated the Comcast deal, which covers E! hosting and recently spent $37 million buying Ellen DeGeneres’s Beverly
producing roles, to take advantage of the 2011 merger with Hills estate and has stakes in several Los Angeles restaurants.
NBCUniversal.
When he is photographed by paparazzi, he’s usually with Ms.
Hough and his parents and sister, with whom he’s close: He
Mr. Seacrest says his new hosting gigs at NBC are an was recently photographed sipping Champagne on a motor
experiment of sorts to see what gels—and a chance to fill out boat with his family in St. Tropez.
his predominantly female fan-base.
“I can sit and I can relax,” he says. “I mean, my brain still
One question is whether the audience will accept Mr. spins, but I’m getting better having a little more balance.”
Seacrest in more serious roles. He notes that the walls