Ryan Seacrest Is a Genius

It’s really easy to hate on Ryan Seacrest. After all, he’s a plastic mousse-haired entertainbot whose claim to fame is that he will host the shit out of anything that moves. But we kind of like Seacrest; he works really hard, he’s relentlessly good at what he does, and he makes us laugh a lot in what by all rights should be a humorless role as host of American Idol. Unlike most, we thought he was the perfect host for the Emmys, and think maybe they should just put him in charge of the Oscars and be done with it. (At least if he sucks, we won’t have our hearts broken, as we did when our beloved Jon Stewart sucked.)

We also like Ryan Seacrest because, as today’s Wall Street Journal confirms, he’s basically a business genius.

According to the Journal, Seacrest is syndicating his L.A.-based radio show, and in an uncommon arrangement will own and sell a certain amount of the show’s advertising time himself. Seacrest has already wined and dined representatives of the Coca-Cola company at his house the night before the Oscars; Wolfgang Puck stopped by to serve them Kobe beef and shaved-truffle mac ‘n’ cheese. We’re pretty sure Seacrest will soon control every radio station in America, and from there will move on to other media, until he — Oops! Ryan Seacrest just bought us! See you later!

Next Up for Mr. Seacrest: Peddling Ads for Radio [WSJ]