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.
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.