Larry King, Ryan Seacrest Deny CNN Rumors: "There's Nothing To That"

Larry King hosted good friend — and rumored replacement — Ryan Seacrest Thursday night in an interview hyped by Seacrest saying they would "talk about everything," including the replacement rumors.

King and Seacrest did discuss "American Idol" as well as other projects Seacrest is working on, but they flatly denied the rumor — peddled last week by MSNBC's Courtney Hazlett — that Seacrest was in talks with the network.

"There were even rumors you were going to join CNN, which, we can tell viewers, there's nothing to that," King said.

"No, the only rumor is we're having dinner Thursday," Seacrest replied. "That's true."

King recently extended his contract with CNN through 2010, putting to rest some speculation that Katie Couric would be jumping in his anchor chair when she leaves CBS.

Watch:

Transcript (via CNN):

KING: Your plate is so full. In fact, we even have a graphic of everything you do. You own eight restaurants.

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SEACREST: OK.

KING: You host "American Idol".

SEACREST: Yes. There's a plate.

KING: You host "American Top 40."

SEACREST: Yes.

KING: You're managing editor and anchor of "E! News Daily."

SEACREST: Um-hmm.

KING: On the air with Ryan Seacrest is heard locally in L.A. and in syndication. You're the host of Dick Clark's "New Year's Eve Rocking Eve."

SEACREST: Um-hmm.

KING: You have your own TV production company. There were even rumors you were going to join CNN, which, we can tell viewers, there's nothing to that.

SEACREST: No, the only rumor is...

KING: So my question is...

SEACREST: ...we're having dinner Thursday. That's true.

KING: That's true.

SEACREST: All right.

KING: So my question is, when do you sleep?

SEACREST: You know, at night, I crawl into bed and I pull up my covers and I put the BlackBerry next to me and I put it on silent now so it doesn't vibrate and wake me up. But I still want to look over and see if that red light is going off. And usually it is. And I have to respond to that e-mail. I have that disorder where I can't put the Blackberry down and stop. So I sleep in segments, like two hours. I wake up and I'll do something on the BlackBerry and then sleep a little bit more. But I, you know, I get up at 4:00 in the morning. And I'm in the car and I consolidate everything. You look at that plate and all of those projects are on one floor in one building in one city.

Comments

[bigironal25]

I mean it, Larry King makes me want to puke! Look at his tiny shoulders,yuck! What woman would ever find him even a little attractive? Only if the money was right. It (the money)must have been right for how many wives? 5-10 women maybe?

[Ariesjill]

The linchpin of Larry's Kings success over milenia, it seems, is that his interest in every guest and every subject...is INGENUOUS. Mr. Seacrest, while obsequiousness...hasn't an ingenuous, sincerely interested bone in him. Nor does his hair.

[Roci]

I really don't care one way or the other. This gets my vote for the "Wasted-space-of-the week." With so much going on in the media world, this is the best you can come up with?

Oy vey!

Roci

[shag11]

Larry King's show is a cult-driven show. It amazes me how little talent he possess, yet people flock to his show, especially when they need to do a mea culpa. He's asks hardly any meaningful questions, and when he does, it's almost if he's apologizing for an intrusion.
He doesn't like aggressive women. When women like Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes come on his show, he always interrupts them and shuts them down. He needs to go. Maybe he'll take McKissass and they join the same shuffleboard club.

[bigironal25]

Larry King makes me want to puke and Ryan, what can be said of that idiot?

[ellen63]

Regarding that Seacrest fellow, I quote Gertrude Stein on Oakland: "There's no there there." Larry King, I am sorry to say, is no longer all "there." But there he was the other evening, interviewing Barbara Walters and competing with her about all the Presidents and Prime Ministers she interviewed with her fine intelligence and perceptiveness. and which I can't attribute to him. Walters always did her homework, in contrast to King who once said he didn't read the books written by his guests so he could ask questions that the audience might. What does he think people are? Stupid, like him? Seacrest and King spend all too much time dying their hair instead of attending to what's under their scalps--little if anything. Patricia Burstein P.S. I must be extremely bored this evenikng to even bother commenting on these two troglodytes, King and Seacrest.

[AurigaRa]

I certainly hope so.
It'll be much easier to just not watch Ryan than to not watch Ryan AND Larry King.

[NoCalDrummer]

What's with the "Red Lasso" thing. Several sites that I visit have gone to it, and yet it's constantly "down", timing out, or just not playing well. Fer godsakes, go back to what was working!

As for Ryan, Larry... I'm glad someone watches them. I seldom do. However, Ryan's toothpaste ad is a HOOT... great "acting" [LOL] when he looks nervous having a woman that close. {ROFL] I think a straight man would have had a far different reaction.

[LittleBrother]

I think they make a cute May-December couple, and I hope they'll live out the rest of their lives in secluded honeymoon bliss.

[truthyguy]

I am so glad I and the rest of America will get to see not just one, but both these entertainment giants for the foreseeable future. The world would not be the same without King's probing interviews of all things meaningful, and without Seacrest's informed and sincere dialog.

Would someone please explain to me how these two incompetent bores make millions per year while at the same time teachers, police, firefighters, nurses and people who actually contribute to society are paid what is barely a living wage.

[OsamaBushLadin]

That's so funny. When CNN said they were going to talk about the rumors surrounding Seacrest, I thought he was going to come out of the closet. I'm sure the phrasing wasn't an accident. Of course I didn't watch those two jackasses.

[ann1]

Anybody........but Ryan Seacrest......please!

[ellen63]

Larry King, sorry to say, has become a vaudeville act. So it follows that Ryan Seacrest would be an ideal candidate for his chair. Larry never fails to amaze. He actually admitted, even boasted, that he never read the books of guests ahead of time so he could ask questions the audience might. To me this is so disrespectful of authors. I'd stay up all night to read someone's book in its entirety before I interviewed them. Patricia Burstein

[Bluedog12]

Larry you're 112 why quit now?

[ronspri]

Thank God. Ryan Seacrest has to be the most overexposed person on TV.