Ryan Seacrest Talks Kardashians, The Wanted & The Future Of American Idol

Ryan Seacrest stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Friday, where the radio host/TV personality/producer dished on everything from the future of “American Idol” to how “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (which he executive produces) got its start, to which of The Wanted boys has the “messiest room” he has ever seen.

Here’s what the busiest man in Hollywood had to say:

Why “American Idol” is still around: “’Idol’ has built this track record of credibility unlike the other shows that haven’t been around long enough to do it as much. But when you think about this success of what Carrie [Underwood] has accomplished and what Kelly [Clarkson]has accomplished and what Jennifer Hudson has accomplished, I mean, that’s huge success.”

Whether there should be three or four “Idol” judges: “I mean look, when we had four it was fine. My opinion would be three. It makes for a faster moving show. Of course, they don’t really care what I think, but I think three would make for faster moving show.”

On a possible reality TV reunion with Simon Cowell: “To have a chance to spar with him again, on live national television, would be heaven. I would love it.”

On Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner: “She is so brilliant at marketing and she is so smart. And she outworks me. I mean, she has incredible work ethic.”

How “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” got made: “[Kris] was interested in doing a television show and this was in the time that ‘The Osbournes’ was popular. I had seen ‘The Osbournes’ and thought to myself — because I had formed a production company — I thought we should find something in this vein. And at the time, we had heard that Kris was interested in doing something with the family, so it was me and one other guy at the company. I had to buy a video camera for this shoot to go to a barbeque they were having on a Sunday. And I remember thinking to myself, ‘Is this going to be worth spending X amount of [company] dollars?’ We went up and we shot a barbeque on a Sunday of the family. They were all together — as crazy and as fun as loving as they are — and they were throwing each other in the pool and I came back and saw the tape. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to show this to E!’ and we took it up to the folks at E! and pitched it to them and they said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go for it.’ We had no idea it would become the monster pop culture business that it is.”

How “The Wanted Life” came about: “We had been playing their music on the radio and they came into the office one day. And a lot of people that you meet with are a little bit guarded when they’re in a meeting or when they’re gonna do a television show. The Kardashians are not guarded and I noticed that The Wanted are not guarded at all. They really will let you shoot anything. And they’re wild. And they are unapologetic about being crazy rock stars, 20-something years old and not caring if they’re diving into fountains in Las Vegas and getting into trouble for it. And so, when I saw that I thought this is a TV show.

On Max George’s messy bedroom: “I went into their house where they live and I saw all of their different bedrooms and Max, the lead, he has the messiest room I have ever seen in my life. And it was a Friday. I know that they are single and like to go out on Fridays. And I said to him, I said, ‘Dude, you gotta clean up your room before you go out. You cannot go out on a Friday night and expect to come back to something like this.’ And he said, ‘It doesn’t really matter how clean my room is. It still works for me.’”

On how he convinced his parents it was OK to drop out of college for Hollywood: “My father’s a lawyer and I had to present a case to him over chicken salad and we sat there and he said, ‘Well, what is it you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, here’s my plan. I’ll give myself a year. If I can’t get some sort of a job and support myself in a year then I’ll come back.’ And so I put my stuff in a Honda Prelude and I drove out and I split an apartment on Verdugo and Hollywood Way, right? $360 bucks a month. I knew one person in town, we split a one bedroom with Ikea furniture on both sides.”

— Erin O’Sullivan