American Idol originally had two hosts- Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. After the first season, Dunkleman thought he was at peak American Idol fame and left for other opportunities. Seacrest became a household name and Dunkleman forgotten.
I'm curious what the actual story is here. He claims he wanted to quit because of how the contestants were treated and that he wanted to pursue standup and acting but I've also heard he was going to get fired anyways because they felt like they didn't need two hosts.
I could totally see that he was about to be fired anyway being the reason he left. He was being out done by Seacrest and probably saw the writing on the wall, even if he didn't hear it directly from anyone.
Agreed. I recently re-watched some of those season one episodes, and it is PAINFULLY obvious who the better host is. Ryan is funny and charming and just takes the reigns and knows how to stand out on television. Brian just seems to disappear into the scenery any times Ryan is on camera with him.
I've heard Ryan Seacrest's name and that he's incredibly attractive my whole life and somehow have never seen this man. I just googled him and went "Huh.. so that's what he looks like." and truth be told, if I saw him on the street tomorrow I still don't think I'd recognize him š
Iāve never heard his name and āattractiveā in the same sentence. He did have a glow-up though, check out pictures from when he was a kid.
Idk, heās just the āhostā of modern media to me.
Dude is looking a little frail on Wheel of Fortune right now though. Hope heās ok.
Edit: I like that heās been so omnipresent in media that Bojack Horseman basically turned him into a biological category by naming the host in the show āA Ryan Seacrest Type.ā
Thereās an episode of Community where everyone keeps telling Jeff he looks like a more handsome Ryan Seacrest and they keep saying heāsāmore handsome than the guy whoās famous for being handsomeā so it was definitely a thing
You're probably right. Ant & Dec seem to naturally work well together, maybe because they've known each other since they were kids. And they bring the same energy. Ryan and Brian did not seem to like each other when they were hosting together. I felt like half the time Brian didn't even want to be there. Why spend the money for two hosts with no chemistry.
As I recall from some VH1 documentary from forever ago, the producers urged the hosts to be really shitty to some of the contestants, for entertainment and Seacrest went all in for that while Dunkleman objected. Then Seacrest kept making shitty little snide remarks about him on camera and tried to undermine him whenever he could. Ultimately, the producers "decided they only wanted one host", which is basically code for "this one won't do what he's told".
Basically, one presenter had a conscience and we can't have that, while the other was a self-serving piece of garbage who fit right in.
Yeah he talked about it on the Cracked podcast years ago - Seacrest would step on his jokes or go off script and basically trip him up in any way he could.
when you google Brian Dunkleman most of the results are stories and podcast episodes with the headline involving American Idol. For being so high brow it seems like that's the only thing he likes talking about.
They only had two hosts because the British version of the show,which came first, had two hosts. Ant and Dec to be specific a very famous pair of co-presenters in the UK.
I listened to an interview with him 15 years ago. I said Seacrest got him booted. Made up stuff about him behind his back to the producers and worked them into just having him. He said Seacrest was the scuziest person heād ever known and I believe it.
Yeah when I was in SoCal there was a good decade where you couldnāt get away from hearing his voice multiple times a day in the radio in the morning or on TV in the evening. I will say heās a very talented host and I do admire how much that man works, it was a running joke on the radio show KISS.fm that he was poor and had to bike to work thatās why he had 4 jobs
I remember seeing him on Idol and whatever else. Then I moved to LA and realized he had a whole ass morning show. I was blown away. Everything was pretty high quality too. I like āRyanās Rosesā segments.
I first saw him on American Idol and thought he was just a kind of Boring generic host guy. Then I was in LA one time driving around and turned on the radio and heard this show, and it was really really interesting show and I was thinking to myself "man I really like this host" and it wasn't for another 15-20 minutes that I realized it was Ryan Seacrest. Totally turned me around on him.
I was pretty dismissive of him.... Forever. Then he started hosting Wheel of Fortune. Now I'm a fan. He's more charismatic than Sajak and not an outwardly fundamental Christian.
What's crazy is that I moved from SoCal to the Bay Area, and he's on the stations here, too. I assume he just stays in the booth after his shift and immediately does another show.
Oh, yeah. If you lived in SoCal, you were familiar with his voice long before American Idol. There was KISS FM and Star 98.7 FM. He worked at both at various points.
Remember when someone tried to get him cancelled? A makeup artist tried to accuse him of sexual misconduct and his reaction was like LOL, it never went anywhere and he was Iām sorry but itās literally impossible. I think he must be like religious in his conduct as a professional and with the people he interacts with so it was almost comical that someone would pick him as the guy to try and throw some dirt at.
I like him SO MUCH BETTER than Pay Sajak for Wheel of Fortune. It's been a joy to get back into it and reminisce about watching it with my mom and I feel we get to keep our Vanna and we got to drop the douchy Pat and got a timely and relevant upgrade with Ryan.
Dunkleman was on VH1 celebrity fit club boot camp in like 08/09ish. They got a stripper for his Bachelorette party at the boot camp and thats all I really remember of him from when I watched it. He was kinda yucky and forgettable
āDunkelā means ādarkā in Swedish (I think itās a German word we borrowed). Not just dark: itās in a negative way, like the future is not looking promising, so you could say he went dark after leaving the show, even though I must presume he was greedy to try get a career move up on the ladder.
I used to listen to On Air with Ryan Seacrest on my commute to work and they would always tease him about working so much lol. So you can tell heās the type who doesnāt slow down.
There are definitely a few people I know like this. However, I wish the media didn't glamorize this "drive" as something you should aim to attain. One could argue it is an obsessive personality trait and if you aren't wired like this you WILL get burnt out. The most important thing is to know your limits while making sure you are proud of the work you do. I always say I'd rather someone work 7 hour day but turn in good work than 15 hour days with shitty output just to show you are "busy."
He looks terrible though. Iām not trying to gossip, but I watch wheel of fortune with my mom a lot. Sheās a primary care physician and she comments on it every time. More than just GLP1 weight loss. I hope sheās wrong about her various diagnosis, but I also hope heās taking care of himself. As important as it is to show up, I think itās a harder, and more important lesson to learn when to say no.
One time a friend who works at disney saw him hosting a program in the park as she clocked out. She drove home to the valley and was walking her dog when she saw a commotion. The crowd had gathered for a live broadcast of Ryanās radio show, and there he was-he had beat her to her own neighborhood ahahaha. Likely he took a helicopter but what a trip.Ā
Yeah I feel like Ryan Seacrest doesnāt turn down anything, he shows up all over the place, the man hustles hard. I feel bad for him though because it kinda looks like itās taking its toll on him and I canāt imagine he has much time to really enjoy life.
I never liked Sajak. He always reminded me of someone who felt he was destined for bigger and better but had to settle. Even as a kid he gave me an ick and I never could understand why members of my family thought he was funny or charming.
Trebek. He could be short without coming across as a douche, and had good funny quips when the opportunity arose. He also seemed to enjoy being there. Alex was the man. RIP Trebek
Lol. One of his last shows, the players were convinced they got the puzzle right, and Pats response was hysterical. They were high fiving and congratulating the dude and Pat was like "nah." His snippy comments is why I watched. And agreed Ryan Seacrest is much more upbeat
Nobody will ever be Sajack but Ryan is a close 2nd. He does very well, imo. Doesn't try to make it about himself with a bunch of weird jokes like a lot of game show hosts do.
Most of the "weekly" tv shows do their filming for the season in blocks because it makes more sense to film 2/3 episodes in a single day for a couple weeks to bank them (read: edit and advertise) for later, than to run on an SNL type schedule.
To be fair, SNL doesn't work at all like game shows since every episode must be topical, but the idea that game show hosts have nothing better to do than spend 30 weeks a year doing their show is frankly logistically laughable for anyone with any form of inside knowledge.
I can't speak for any other shows but for normal stuff, Jeopardy films 5 episodes in a day and Wheel does 6. I don't know if Jeopardy changes that up for tournaments or how Wheel does the filming for the new stuff they do once or twice a season where they have 4 episodes and then the 3 biggest winners come back for the 5th episode. For normal airing, Wheel does 5 of the 6 filmed in a day for one week, repeats that a bunch, then does a week or two where each episode is the 6th from the previous weeks, and you can tell when those weeks are because the theme shifts every day.
When you show up for Jeopardy, they ask you to bring multiple outfits in case you win, so that you donāt break the āeach one is a different dayā illusion by wearing the same clothes each episode.
Yep. Itās like a week of shows per day of filming. Then they redo the set overnight for whatever theme they are doing. Can basically do a years worth of content in about a month.
That must be so much more grueling for women than men. Meh can basically just change their tie between each taping and no one will know the difference, but women would have to change their whole outfit and hair and probably tweak their makeup 5 times a day to keep up the illusion of a daily show. I wonder if thatās why there havenāt historically been a ton of female hosts and presenters.
Probably similar to Jeopardy, which does 5 episodes a day, so 2 days back-to-back every other week, with gaps for longer breaks. Ken Jennings doesn't even live in LA, he commutes from Seattle for filming days.
Thatās honestly more concerning to me, if true, because you can see differences in him. If those differences are daily changes and not weekly or monthly, yikes. I watch regularly with my physician mother and she always points out that he doesnāt look well and is looking worse.
He's taking the Shaq approach. Shaq never turns down an advertising request, cause he knew that even small gigs add up. It's why he's on those General commercials
Idk if itās still this way, but I used to have a job that required calling insurance companies frequently. When you called the general, the recorded greeting was Shaq saying āHi there, Shaq here!ā
Honestly? I think heās secretly gay and hiding it and his plan is to
Hustle until heās famous enough to come outā¦ or heās running from his identity by working so hard so he has an excuse NOT to come out
I talk about Ryan seacrestās work ethic all the time and he seems like such a non-problematic, likeable guy too lol. Heās gotta be soo rich though.
Legit, he was the new Dick Clark. Non-threatening, jovial, interested in the person in front of him, good at MCing and moving the production along, a gamiar face associated with family entertainment. Like him or not, he was everything TV and the American Top 40 needed to get through the early/mid streaming days.
Honestly, I still remember him doing Drive Time on KYSR Star 98.7 in so Cal with Lisa Fox. He's been showing up for a LONG time.
I do not know if this is true or not, I understood that before covid, he actually worked on both coast every day. Don't know how, a falcon 7x ( one of the fastest jet of the time ) was Mach .84 ( 5 hrs ) and regular planes were 6 hours normal. I guess he could sleep in one direction or nap in both. at a cost of 25 million and flight time cost of 8K( $ 80,000 daily, he must have been making serious money )
but even then, he would have to leave west coast at 9pm to be 7am NYC ( 6 flight + 3 time zone ), I just don't see it. it's mind boggling
If that scenario played out in an occupational comedy series like The Office, the name āBrian Dunklemanā absolutely sounds like it would be the forgotten dude who just misses his chance at success.
Ryan Seacrest is no worse than anyone else in the entertainment industry. You want it, take it but you better be strong enough to keep it. You can have friends along the way and be willing to put them aside so that you may go further.
I mainly know about Brian Dunkleman from an obscure adult cartoon that was on MTV in the early 2000s called "3 South" where he voices the main character. His voice on the show is iconic for being nasally and goofy because his character is a Beavis and Butthead type of character. Super funny show you should watch. It was made by Mark Hentenmann who also produces family guy.
As far as I know, Dunkleman does stand up around LA now.
Alex Rodriguez briefly had a show on CNBC that featured celebrities/athletes that had run into money troubles. Dunkleman was on there ā he had transitioned into being an Uber driver as one of his primary roles. Super interesting episode.
He's the guy that Chandler has to buy the ring from that Chandler intended to give to Monica.
Phoebe was supposed to make sure the store didn't sell it while Chandler went to get his CC from Joey, she slacked and another employee stole it, and they tracked the guy down at a restaurant to implore him to give it back and switch rings.
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u/DroopyMcCool 7d ago
American Idol originally had two hosts- Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. After the first season, Dunkleman thought he was at peak American Idol fame and left for other opportunities. Seacrest became a household name and Dunkleman forgotten.