American Idol 16: Is Ryan Seacrest return in limbo due to Katy Perry salary?
According to a new report from the New York Post, which cites Richard Rushfield of American Idol: The Untold Story as evidence, Seacrest may end up bailing on the project thanks mostly to money — what makes the world go round. Look at things this way — the series paid an incredible (and shocking) $25 million to Katy Perry in order to get her on board as the main judge for the show. This makes her, next to Simon Cowell, the highest-paid judge in the history of the singing show.
Before Perry’s offer was made public knowledge, the offer made to Seacrest was at around $10 million — hardly something to sneeze at. The issue now is that he’s really the only onscreen presence to be a part of every season of American Idol, and all of a sudden it may feel somewhat like a slight that he isn’t getting anywhere near the same sort of love that Katy did, given that she’s only guest-judged on the show in the past.
If ABC wants Ryan, and they almost certainly do, they are going to have to pay for him. What is funny about this in the end is that so many different prophecies made by CBS as to why they didn’t pick up the show may become true. They viewed American Idol as an almost-impossible property to stabilize financially just because every facet of the operation adds up to a ton of money. With ABC dumping $25 million into getting Perry on board, they have to find a way to save money on the other judges in order to keep things from getting really out of control.
Another reason why paying Ryan won’t come cheap: He is hosting Live! with Kelly and Ryan in New York City, and doing American Idol means that he’d be spending huge stretches of time in 2018 traveling between this city and Los Angeles, where the live shows will be set for many weeks.
The show probably will pay Seacrest, mostly because they have to. Otherwise, does this show even have much of an identity at all?
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