We reported last week that American Idol host Ryan Seacrest is due to renew his contract with the show, if he plans to stick around for another season. Now an anonymous source is saying Ryan does not want anything to do with American Idol 2015 if he can help it.
From watching him on the show, you would never think American Idol 2014 host Ryan Seacrest might be planning not to return for season 14. We knew his latest $30 million two-year contract was running out, but he repeatedly stated in the past that he has no plans to quit the show for any reason. But has he changed his mind?
“I love doing it,” Ryan told Access Hollywood last year. “It’s what I know. Every day of my life for the last 12–almost 13–years,” he said. “I’ve gotten up to either host Idol or go on the auditions. So I’d like to do it as long as they’d like to have me.”
An anonymous source, however, told RadarOnline.com this week that Ryan has apparently had a change of heart and does not want to return for American Idol season 14.
“Ryan is telling friends that this season of Idol is likely to be his last,” an alleged insider tells RadarOnline. “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.”
The alleged insider claims Ryan is fed up with interviewing people and playing host, and is ready to move more more into producing and working behind the scenes.
“‘Idol’ is holding him back right now,” the alleged insider tells RadarOnline, “but it’s also the most money he’s ever been paid for anything, so he has to be a politician about it.”
We always take anything reported by such tabloid sites as this one with a huge truckload of salt. Even if there is fire somewhere underneath all this smoke, it could just be a negotiation tactic for Ryan Seacrest to land even more money for his next American Idol contract. Hollywood types do that all the time.
In fact, the Hollywood Reporter is saying just the opposite of RadarOnline, claiming Ryan is all set and ready to sign on for two more years of hosting American Idol. Honestly, they are the more reliable source, so we are hoping their report has more truth to it. We just couldn’t imagine the show without Ryan!
However, Ryan Seacrest may not be the only person to jump ship after season 13 ends if the gossip does turn out to be true. American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez has booked a new full-order TV series for 2015 called Shades of Blue. With a new TV show and a music career to attend to, we think also doing Idol for another season might be too much of a juggling act for JLo.