https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/ryan-seacrest-american-idol-twentieth-anniversary-1235097475

As Idol kicks off its 20th season overall on Sunday and celebrates its 20th anniversary in June, Seacrest sees Idol as being an ongoing TV program, like sports and the news. "When we were in the beginning of it and the numbers were 20 million, 25 million — the finales at 40 million, crazy numbers — to look back at that, it seems like it was a fantasy world," Seacrest tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Look at the numbers that a show can generate today. But I think, with all the fragmentation, it’s something that everyone experiences, something that we have expected. And hopefully, with more and more platforms, there’s an opportunity for more eyeballs to see the show. When the streamers first started, it was just a scripted format that you’d see. Now you get live programming and sports on streamers as well. I think that that’s probably where American Idol lives one day. Yes, the audiences are fragmented and there are fewer of them in one place, but I really feel like this is the kind of show that has a home somewhere for as long as people want to produce it and make it — as long as people want to audition for it. I don’t think there’s any shortage of young talent every year that’s looking for a big break who just don’t know how to get to an audition in Hollywood or Nashville or Austin or New York. That will never run out, and therefore I think this format and this series has the opportunity to live with generations and have other generations grow up watching it to try to be the next winner."

ALSO:


Here are five changes American Idol should make, from a better vetting process to adding a mentor who knows their stuff (https://tvline.com/lists/american-idol-season-20-criticism-changes-abc/judges-comments)
From Jennifer Hudson to Adam Lambert to Katharine McPhee, you don't have to win Idol to become a show success story (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/american-idol-twentieth-anniversary-winning-competition-1235097474/)
Judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan reflect on Idol's pedigree and unique TV legacy (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/american-idol-twentieth-anniversary-katy-perry-lionel-richie-1235097473/)

Perhaps the more important question is: Will Ryan Seacrest, himself, ever end?

I mean, you turn on tv, and there he is, hosting one show or another or hawking some product you really neither want nor need.

If Mr. Seacrest keeps it up, he’ll, no doubt, eventually surpass his own personal hero/idol, the late, lamented Regis Philbin, as “Mr. Ubiquity of American Television.”

Please take some well-intentioned advice, Mr. Seacrest, and take a page out of the books of J.D. Salinger, Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes and try chilling out for awhile and give America a well-deserved break from your seemingly omnipresent boyish grin. :happyface:wave:

Even 'GUNSMOKE' finally wheezed its way to an end so I have hope that eventually the viewers won't have to have either AI or Mr. Seacrest inflicted upon our screens ad nauseum!

I think Howard Stern is as “big” a “fan” of Ryan Seacrest as Howard is a “big fan” of both Rick Dees and Joy Behar.