Kelly Ripa officially named Ryan Seacrest her permanent “Live” co-host on Monday, and for pretty good reason(s).
First of all, the “American Idol” alum is one of the best talkers in the business, and he has no shortage of hosting experience. Plus, dude’s Nielsen numbers on the Disney-ABC syndicated daytime show aren’t too bad either.
Seacrest has guest co-hosted with Ripa five times since her previous partner Michael Strahan ditched the show for “Good Morning America” last May. In his handful of episodes, “Live With Kelly” (and Seacrest) has averaged a 2.56 rating. OK, we know that means nothing to most readers, so we’re armed with context below..
That 2.56 ranks Seacrest No. 20 out of 67 different guest co-hosts since the ex-NFL star’s exodus. Top one-third, not bad at all. That slot means he averaged slightly better tune-in than Jim Parsons, and a hair worse than Anderson Cooper. We’d say those guys were too busy to handle the “Live” duties on a full-time basis, but Seacrest’s not exactly a lazy bum either.
It didn’t hurt that the popular radio personality only guest co-hosted the show five times and hasn’t appeared since February. Seacrest did three of his episodes in November, and the other one last June. Had he stopped by more often and more recently, the guy who handled Fox’s short-lived “Knock Knock Live” may have fallen victim to organically lowering interest levels, and thus, fewer eyeballs.
Click here to see how every single guest co-hosted episode of “Live With Kelly” has done since Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the run a almost 12 full months ago. And go here to see the Nielsen averages for each individual member of the year-long tryout.