Ryan Seacrest will apparently continue to be a fixture on the American Idol stage.
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Seacrest has inked a new $45 million, three-year deal with Idol producer 19 Entertainment's CKX parent company to continue helming the Fox mega-hit, The Hollywood Reporter reported Monday.
The deal is worth $15 million per year -- triple Seacrest's previous salary of slightly less that $5 million per season -- and makes the host's primetime broadcast network services exclusive to CKX to helm Idol or any other CKX-produced series that might succeed it, according to The Reporter.
Seacrest currently has a separate deal with Comcast and serves as E! Entertainment's lead anchor, while his production company is behind E!'s Keeping up with the Kardashians and Denise Richards: It's Complicated reality series and a new ABC reality series starring chef Jamie Oliver.
19 Entertainment, FreemantleMedia North America, Fox and Seacrest's attorneys all declined comment on the new deal, according to The Reporter.
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While judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson are both currently under contract with Fox through Idol's ninth season, the same isn't true for Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul.
DioGuardi signed only a one-year deal for the show's recently completed eighth season, which also represented the last year of a three-year contract Abdul signed with Fox in March 2006.
In March, Fox reality chief Mike Darnell stated that he doesn't foresee any changes to Idol's four-person judging panel for next spring's ninth season, and in May Cowell "absolutely" guaranteed that all four will be back.
Abdul recently stated that she's "optimistic" she'll return for the show's ninth season as she continues to negotiate her contract.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio