Ryan Seacrest left “Live with Kelly and Ryan” today after six years.
A lot was made of his big send off, complete with members of his family in tow. The press pitch on “Access Hollywood” was that they’re a close, close family.
Indeed, they are. As I’ve reported before, Ryan keeps his sister and father on his payroll at the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. That hasn’t changed over the years.
In 2020, sister Meredith was getting close to $300,000 as Chief Operating Office. Dad Gary gets $95,000 a year as legal counsel. These are good gigs!
An actually qualified person named Nicole Mead gets $100,000 as Senior Director.
What does Nicole do? According to her official bio, “Nicole enjoys spending her free time traveling, exploring the National Parks system, attending live music events and volunteering with a handful of Nashville non-profits.”
Good for her!
What does the Ryan Seacrest Foundation do? A little unclear. According to their 2020 Form 990 Tax filing, they gave 10 hospitals $10,000 each, and $25,000 to the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Florida. So that’s $125,000 total, although they claim $1.3 million in grants and donations. It’s unclear how this was added up.
Seacrest returns to “American Idol” and his LA-based radio show, and producing the Kardashians’ reality show. On Monday, Kelly Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, becomes the new co-host.
Regis Philbin, I might add, is turning in his grave. (I do miss Regis.)
