Live! From New York… It’s Ryan Seacrest!

Any thoughts of a “slow news week” were dashed early yesterday morning when America’s Host™ Ryan Seacrest was introduced as Kelly Ripa‘s new co-host on the rebranded Live With Kelly & Ryan. CNN broke the closely guarded news prior to Seacrest’s first appearance on yesterday’s show. According to TheWrap.com, which has kept careful count, “Ripa tried out 67 guest co-hosts over 195 original episodes before deciding on Seacrest.” For his part, Seacrest co-hosted Live five times as a guest since ABC began the search for Michael Strahan‘s replacement one year ago.

“Today, the next chapter of the Live story is about to be written,” Ripa said at the outset of yesterday’s show, before introducing Seacrest. After a dramatically timed commercial break, Ripa finally brought Seacrest on stage. “I couldn’t be more excited to be here with you,” said Seacrest, who will also be an executive producer on Live, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “giving him at least nominally the same level of power over it that Ripa herself has.” Seacrest later tweeted, “So excited to join this show!! @KellyRipa crushes every morning… one of my favorite people ever. #livekellyryan.” This new Live gig gives Seacrest, the former host of American Idol, a new daily platform on network television, up against the third hour of NBC’s Today — and later this year, a new 9am NBC show hosted by Megyn Kelly.

And in case you were wondering about the continuation of Seacrest’s daily radio show, given the logistics of a move from Los Angeles to New York, well, wonder no more — according to several sources, the ABC building in Times Square that houses Live (and where Seacrest hosts Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest), will build a new radio studio to accommodate Seacrest, who will reportedly host Live from New York Monday through Thursday and spend the rest of the week in Los Angeles, according to CNN. The Friday episode is usually taped in advance. A supportive statement from iHeartMedia read, “Ryan Seacrest is a great multi-platform performer, and we are excited for his new venture back into a regular TV schedule. This is great for his career and great for radio, and we believe his KIIS-FM morning show will benefit from his daily television presence.” Echoing that sentiment, @OnAirWithRyan tweeted, “This show is my life… my rock. And we get to do it for a long time.”