Seacrest: bad news for CNN

Ryan Seacrest rose to media fame and fortune as the nice-guy foil to Simon Cowell on American Idol. He became the American America loves to love in inverse proportion to Cowell's rise as the Brit that America loves to hate.

As singers wither under Cowell's brutal truths, Seacrest assures them they are wonderful. He speaks to American optimism, however fatuous. He can thank Cowell for catapulting him to an income estimated at $14m a year by Forbes magazine.

That is fine. But Seacrest is now tipped by 'insiders' to inherit CNN's nightly Larry King Live at the end of the year. This would be preposterous if it were not so easily explained.

Seacrest is the ultimate in vanilla sponge broadcasting