• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 29, 2023

Dick Clark was Ryan Seacrest’s American idol.

The variety of Seacrest’s various jobs and business interests, up to and including this week’s news that he has agreed to replace Pat Sajak as host of “Wheel of Fortune,” resembles Dick Clark's multifaceted workload from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Seacrest, 48, was named earlier this week as the new, incoming host of “Wheel of Fortune” following Sajak's announcement two weeks ago that he plans to retire from the job at the end of the 2023-24 season, his 42nd as host.

Seacrest is a great hire. He is a middle-of-the-road air personality with mass appeal who offends no one. And “Wheel of Fortune” is TV's consummate mass-appeal TV show.

Among the reasons it has run forever: The whole atmosphere is one of congeniality, it has a great time slot, the game is fun and not too taxing, and Sajak, 76, is a master at the skill of making his contestants feel comfortable with gentle good humor.

Based on the available evidence from Seacrest's long career in TV, there is no reason to suggest that he won't bring that very same skill to the table. His ascension to the host's role figures to be seamless.

According to news reports, Seacrest will start his new job at the beginning of the 2024-25 season.

When the news broke on Tuesday, many may have been surprised that Seacrest -- who has almost no history as a game-show host -- would take the job.

The same reaction greeted his decision in 2017 to come in and replace Michael Strahan as co-host of “Live With Kelly” on ABC, although Seacrest had little or no experience on this kind of a show either.

And yet, to do this daily morning TV show, he took a huge leap of faith to move his primary home from California to New York City, all the while keeping up with all his other interests.

A very partial list of them includes hosting “American Idol” (the show that made him nationally famous), hosting radio shows, and producing dozens of TV shows, among them “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” for all of its seasons from 2007 to 2021.

Six years after joining “Live,” he decided this past April to leave the show and move back to California, possibly because he may have already been pursuing the “Wheel” job and may have had it in the bag too.

Who would not want the “Wheel” job? It's a great gig because game shows of this type tend to tape multiple episodes in a day, amounting to full seasons in just a few months or even weeks.

Seacrest may have been attracted to the job because its production schedule allows him to continue pursuing his other interests. In addition, the job must pay very well.

So, even if all of Seacrest's other ventures gradually go by the wayside as he ages (although there is no reason to suggest this), the “Wheel of Fortune” host job virtually guarantees he can have this job perhaps until he too is 76.

What does all this have to do with Dick Clark? For a time, he stood at the very pinnacle of TV and radio -- a superstar on the air and behind the scenes -- not unlike Ryan Seacrest today.

Clark also hosted game shows and nationally syndicated radio countdown shows, and produced dozens of shows through his production company, Dick Clark Productions.

Their paths converged in 2005 when Clark agreed to cede the hosting job on “Dick Clark’s New Year's Rockin’ Eve” to Seacrest following Clark's stroke in 2004.

After Clark died in 2012, Seacrest wrote a touching tribute to his mentor in The Hollywood Reporter.

“Dick was an amazing broadcaster,” Seacrest wrote. “But he decided early on that he wanted to be in the business and not just a face in front of the camera. He passed this advice on to me, and I haven't looked back.”

Ryan Seacrest photo courtesy of ABC, from “Live With Kelly And Ryan,” now “Live With Kelly And Mark.”