Jamie Rector for The New York TimesRyan Seacrest in 2006 on the set of the E! News broadcast.
Imagine, at 36, trying to decide which jobs to take next, if the possibilities included the “Today” show, prime-time specials, “American Idol” and the expansion of your production company.
That is the enviable position Ryan Seacrest finds himself in this month as his agents negotiate a new contract with NBCUniversal, which produces both “E! News,” where he works now, and the “Today” show, arguably the crown jewel of American television. His existing contract expires in early 2012.
NBC and the company that controls it, Comcast, are seeking ways to “keep Ryan in the Comcast family,” as one person with knowledge of the negotiations said Wednesday. One way is to put Mr. Seacrest in line to replace Matt Lauer, if Mr. Lauer, 53, decides to leave the “Today” show. Mr. Lauer’s current contract expires at the end of 2012.
Mr. Seacrest had dinner on Tuesday with NBC News executives. When the meeting was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday there was a torrent of surprised reaction online, much of it negative, from viewers who said that Mr. Seacrest lacks the kind of news background that is needed for a “Today” anchor chair. The writer of the well-read blog Inside Cable News asked, via Twitter: “Can anyone picture Ryan Seacrest covering 9/11 if he’d been at ‘Today’ on that date? Didn’t think so.”
But there was little if any surprise among NBC’s competitors. Mr. Seacrest is perceived to be hugely popular among women who make up the core demographic for “Today,” which is the most watched and most lucrative morning program on television. He would bring to it immediate star power and a galaxy of Hollywood contacts.
In July, six months after Comcast, which owns the E! channel and “E! News,” gained control of NBC, Mr. Seacrest made a much-noticed appearance on “Today” to discuss one of his charities. He is expected to step up those appearances next year, perhaps as an occasional co-host of the third hour of the four-hour program.
One of the people with knowledge of the negotiations described the possibility of an “apprenticeship” for Mr. Seacrest under Mr. Lauer next year, allowing Mr. Seacrest to gradually gain news credibility with the “Today” show audience. Mr. Seacrest had a similar relationship with Larry King when Mr. King had a CNN interview show.
Mr. Seacrest could also come on “Today” with exclusive interviews or entertainment news, which he already does on his nationally syndicated morning radio show, two people with knowledge of the talks said.
Currently based in Los Angeles, Mr. Seacrest has told friends that he would like to spend more time in New York, where the “Today” show is broadcast.
The people who spoke of the negotiations insisted on anonymity to protect personal relationships and business dealings. A representative for the “Today” show declined to comment, and a representative for Mr. Seacrest said that negotiations with NBCUniversal were ongoing.
NBC has traditionally taken succession planning very seriously — successfully, with the transition from Katie Couric to Meredith Vieira on “Today,” and disastrously, from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien (and back to Jay Leno) on “Tonight” — and the discussions with Mr. Seacrest augur the same approach toward Mr. Lauer’s chair.
Earlier this year, Ann Curry replaced Ms. Vieira as Mr. Lauer’s co-anchor, and the ratings for “Today” have held pretty steady since then, with about 5.5 million viewers on any given weekday. But the second-place morning program, ABC’s “Good Morning America,” has crept up, sometimes coming within half a million viewers of “Today.”
Mr. Lauer has told some friends and associates that he intends to leave “Today” when his contract ends, though doubts remain about his plans. Inside NBC, deliberations about replacing Mr. Lauer were described as being in the early stages.
NBC’s interest in Mr. Seacrest was first reported by a media news Web site, Mediaite, in August, although no meeting was reported then.
Mr. Seacrest’s career paths are gaining more attention now because his wide-ranging contract with Comcast is coming up for renewal. Mr. Seacrest co-hosts and produces “E! News” and produces reality shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” for the company, and he also houses his production company there.
In a sign of Mr. Seacrest’s expanding relationship with Comcast, another one of the company’s cable channels, Bravo, ordered a reality show from his production company in July. The show, “Shahs of Sunset,” is scheduled to have its premiere in 2012.
Apart from his work for Comcast, Mr. Seacrest hosts “American Idol” on Fox; hosts radio shows for Clear Channel; and co-hosts the New Year’s Eve countdown on ABC. Mr. Seacrest has only committed to one more season of “Idol,” which he has hosted since 2002, clearing the way for him potentially to be a prime-time host for NBC. Ted Harbert, who ran the E! network when Mr. Seacrest joined in 2006 and who now chairs NBC Broadcasting, is known to be a major backer of Mr. Seacrest’s.
The notion that Mr. Seacrest could take a seat at the “Today” show as part of a package deal with Comcast may not sit well with some.
“When Comcast was making its headlong push to take over NBC, they promised again and again that they would not interfere with NBC News; maybe their plan instead is just to abandon news altogether?” said Craig Aaron, the chief executive of Free Press, a media reform group that opposed the Comcast-NBC combination.
Some of NBC’s competitors similarly wondered on Thursday what Mr. Seacrest on “Today” might mean for the NBC news brand. But “Today” can point to many examples of serious news on the program; just a week ago Ms. Curry came on the show from Iraq with the vice president and members of the military.
Stephen Battaglio, the author of “From Yesterday to Today,” an authorized book about the morning program, said that Mr. Seacrest is a “great live broadcaster who can do a lot of different things.”
“While it might offend TV news purists, ‘Today’ has a history of taking nonjournalists and developing them into anchors,” he said.
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