No, this isn’t another rant about Ellen.
Nor is it about the lack of potential in this year’s “American Idol” contestants.
This ... is about Ryan Seacrest! (Cue “Idol” theme.)
More specifically, it's about Seacrest acting, as one message-board poster put it, like "an arrogant, overconfident jerk."
(Read also: "'Glee' is Making 'Idol' Look ... Tired")
As Ellen settles in and begins to find her rhythm, and as the worst of the sorry bunch are finally getting weeded out – well, OK, not Teflon Tim Urban yet -- it’s now the show’s host that is beginning to raise fans’ hackles.
Until now, Seacrest’s job role has been limited to unbiased moderator, who keeps the show moving along efficiently. But lately he seems to have added a new facet -- not just bantering with Simon about tight T-shirts but actually critiquing the judges’ comments.
(See accompanying story, "What the Fans Say About Ryan.")
And, maybe worse, instead of being the contestants’ safe island, he’s begun directing intrusive questions towards them.
Flash back to March 3. Haeley Vaughn had just finished mangling “The Climb,” making Miley Cyrus sound like Mariah Carey by comparison.
Cowell prefaced his devastating comments with an “I don’t want to make this any worse than it already is ... ” After Cowell was through, Seacrest snapped at him, “How is that not making it any worse by saying that? What good did that do?”
Awkward silence ... followed by nervous laughter and a, “Wow. Wow. Okay,” from Randy, who was so shocked he couldn’t even get out a “dawg!”
It’s deteriorated from there. A couple of weeks ago, Seacrest stepped off the stage and leaned over the judges’ desk, glowering at Cowell. Doing his best Clint Eastwood-meets-Wink Martindale, he asked for clarification on Simon’s critique of Big Mike Lynche.
“I’m actually trying to help him out a little bit, buddy, because I want him to stay in the competition,” Seacrest said through clenched teeth. “You alright with that?”
A visibly upset Cowell called this display “very uncomfortable” and repeatedly ordered (and then almost begged) the host to get back on the stage.
Indeed, the tension between these two is reaching O’Donnell-Hasselbeck proportions.
“The confrontations with Simon are becoming completely awkward,” Murtz Jaffer, host of Canada’s “Reality Obsessed” and a fan of Seacrest, told TheWrap. “It’s like an inside joke that nobody else gets.”
Fans on the official “American Idol” message boards would concur.
Nestled between the forums entitled “Ryan’s Scruff Watch” and “Was Ryan’s Hair Parted on the Other Side???” are less favorable threads with names such as “Ryan: You’re Not Funny, You’re Rude!” and “Ryan Seacrest Out of Control.”
User “Silver9” summed up the opinions of many on the boards: “Ryan has been acting seriously odd this year. I don’t know if it’s AI themselves who told him and Simon to act up a little or if Ryan is just getting complacent in his job.
