Ryan Seacrest To Leave 'American Idol' Following Season 13
Ryan Seacrest is reportedly planning to leave American Idol after the currently airing 13th season.
At the end of the season, Seacrest's $30 million hosting contract expires, and according to reports, he has no intensions of returning.
“Ryan is telling friends that this season of Idol is likely to be his last,” an insider told Radar Online on April 18. “He’s lost the passion for it, and desperately wants to do different things at this point in his career, like produce the Oscars and start developing more of his original ideas.”
Seacrest has been with American Idol since the show premiered in summer 2002, and since landing the gig, has gone on to score plenty of other hosting roles. In Aug. 2005, Seacrest was named as co-host and executive producer of ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In 2007, Seacrest hosted the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
However, at this point, Seacrest's passion for hosting isn't what it once was, so instead of continuing on down the same path, he would now like to put his focus on producing.
“Ryan’s reduced role in this year’s Emmys red carpet coverage is a clear move toward a life that involves less hosting and more producing,” the insider explains. “He wants to transition to behind the scenes more, and is getting fed up with the ‘interviewing people‘ part of his job, when his heart is really in the work he does as a producer.”
Among Seacrest's producing credits are Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Shahs of Sunset, Melissa & Tye and Married to Jonas. He also works as executive producer of his radio show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest.