'Who Am I If Not The American Idol Guy?'

Ryan Seacrest spent a year trying to figure out what he should do post-Idol; then, days into his next act as host of Live With Kelly and Ryan, ABC announced the singing competition is coming back — thus began a fraught and frenzied negotiation to return him to the show that made him famous: ‘If I could do it forever, I would do it forever’

- Lacey Rose

Earlier this month, Seacrest was, once and for all, out. After 15 seasons as host of American Idol, Ryan had watched the singing competition that made him famous get canceled by Fox in April 2016 and then, after a multi-network bidding war, be revived the following May by ABC — the very company with which he had signed a giant deal to co-host the newly retitled Live With Kelly and Ryan only a few days earlier.

Almost immediately, Seacrest, who had spent the 13 months in between agonizing over the next phase of his career, had a rich offer from ABC and producer Fremantle North America to return. Sure, there would be some negotiating: He’d try to eke out more money — to move him from the $10 million range on the table to the $15 million or so he’d commanded during the show’s heyday — and he’d want a say in its creative direction. But reaching an agreement with the guy Idol creator Simon Fuller calls the show’s “single most important element” initially seemed like a foregone conclusion. Seacrest sat first with Fremantle’s Trish Kinane and then with Disney/ABC’s Ben Sherwood, swapping ideas for how to modernize a show that premiered pre-Facebook, forget Instagram or Snapchat. At one point, he even huddled with Katy Perry, encouraging the pop star to sign on as the anchor judge for the new incarnation.