Ryan Seacrest shot to mainstream fame back in 2002 when he debuted as the co-host of American Idol, and he has served as the solo host for the 24 seasons since. The show has changed judges and even networks over the years, but Seacrest is as present in the 2026 TV schedule as he was back in the early 2000s. The competition show returned for the ninth season on ABC and 25th season overall, prompting the host to open up about a wholesome trend he's noticed recently.
Seacrest, who keeps an extremely busy schedule now with Wheel of Fortune on top of his Idol duties, spoke with People about how he keeps his energy up for the show more than two decades and 25 seasons in. He said:
Seeing new people every year from all over the country, many of them, now, have grown up watching the show and waited all their lives for this moment to audition.
Back when Kelly Clarkson was still just a hopeful singer who didn't know she was on a TV show and Ryan Seacrest was co-hosting with Brian Dunkleman in 2002, nobody could have known that American Idol would become the pop culture juggernaut that it is today. Now, circa 2026, viewers are seeing singers who might have been watching Kelly Clarkson and her successors from home, dreaming of one day making it to the stage themselves.
And who better than the man who has been around from the very beginning to notice trends over the years? Seacrest went on to share a realization that he had more recently than when Kelly Clarkson was belting "A Moment Like This" as the first-ever American Idol champion:
[Contestants will] say, 'I never thought I would be the person that would try out for this show, but I saw an artist, or a contestant like me that was not in this quintessential cookie-cutter kind of way. And I thought, wow, it could be me' and they do it. So I think that's the evolution of this.
Season 9 only just premiered on January 26 on ABC (and is available streaming now with a Hulu subscription), so there are surely many more artists like the ones Ryan Seacrest described on the way in the coming weeks. The contestants certainly have some former competitors worth looking up to.
Not only did Kelly Clarkson win the first season, but she is the artist behind some of the catchiest pop songs of the last quarter century, hosts her own talk show, coached The Voice to more wins than anybody other than Blake Shelton, and toured around the world. Jennifer Hudson stands as one of the few EGOT winners in history despite not even winning her season of Idol, Carrie Underwood has eight Grammys to her name, and Adam Lambert joined with the one and only Queen.
And hey, if there are any out there who have TV hosting dreams of their own, Ryan Seacrest is a stellar example. In addition to American Idol and now Wheel of Fortune, Seacrest spent six seasons co-hosting Live with Kelly and Ryan alongside Kelly Ripa, and he returned to ABC for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve to ring in the new year from 2025 to 2026.
Tune in to American Idol on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, with Season 9 of the ABC revival and Season 25 of the series overall. You can also stream next day on Hulu.
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