King has been a bit of a mentor for Seacrest for years, so it’s a natural: Seacrest was a guest on King’s final show 12/16 and he told CBS’s Early Show co-anchor Erica Hill 12/21 that he’s readying to team up with Ryan Seacrest: “We’re in major talks with Ryan Seacrest, who runs now, pretty much, Clear Channel Radio. I’d say that’s very — pretty close to fruition.”
So it’s a bit of the full-circle: King let Seacrest guest-host his CNN shows before.
King added that he’s also talking to “some people” about a “major internet thing” with a cable network.
King conducted nearly 50,000 interviews in his time. The king of talk announced his CNN exit back in June.
RBR-TVBR observation: Needless to say, whatever they might do together would likely involve interviewing—possibly music and entertainment talent in a roundtable setting with a bit of documentary content as well. If it happens it will be good as King will hand over to Ryan the good will and the trust King has built over his career. This is how business should be conducted.
