Triumphant Seacrest

Here’s one thing you and I have in common with Ryan Seacrest: None of us knows whatever happened to Brian Dunkleman.

“I haven’t spoken to Brian since the last episode we did together in Season 1 of ‘American Idol,’ ” Seacrest said recently of his former sidekick.

Like a discarded booster rocket, Dunkleman fell away as “Idol” soared into the stratosphere. Four years later the 31-year-old Seacrest is captain of the ship, having developed into a megahost – a species that presumably had gone away when three TV channels became 300 and radio fragmented into a boutique mall.

With each triumphant season – “Idol” is the No. 1 show on TV, and its audience is growing – more offers are thrown at Seacrest’s feet. And apparently he takes all of them.

Behind the scenes he is building an empire that reminds many industry watchers of the rise of another pop music host, Dick Clark.

On the radio, he has stepped into the shoes of Casey Kasem as host of “American Top 40.” Seacrest also fills in for Larry King regularly on CNN. And earlier this month the E! cable channel aired “Eva Longoria: The Interview With Ryan Seacrest,” the first in a series of Barbara Walters-like interviews that he will conduct with celebrities in their homes.

“I have a lot that I want to do,” Seacrest told TV critics in January. “I’m fulfilled now with the hosting and talent aspect of my career. I’m not fulfilled with the production aspect of my career.”

Earlier this, month freshly ousted “Idol” contestant Bucky Covington called in to “The Ryan Seacrest Show,” the morning drive program on Los Angeles’ KIIS-FM, and Seacrest asked what had surprised him most about his time in L.A.

“You,” Covington gushed. “Nobody has any idea how many hours you put in your job.”

Actually we do know how many hours he puts into his job, thanks to an intrepid Boston Herald reporter who detailed a recent day in the life of Seacrest.

It begins shortly after 4 a.m., an hour before his morning radio show goes on the air, and continues late mornings at E!, where Seacrest works on “E! News Daily” and other programs he produces and hosts for the channel.

His day ends either at (a) CBS Television City, where “Idol” is taped; (b) the studios of “American Top 40,” the radio countdown show he took over in 2004; (c) the L.A. bureau of CNN, whenever King needs a sub; (d) wherever he is when he’s developing his fashion line, The R Line; or (e) home, which will soon be the $11.5 million Hollywood Hills mansion Seacrest reportedly took off Kevin Costner’s hands.

Why he takes all the work is a mystery. Why he gets the work isn’t.

First, as he proved during that debut season of “American Idol,” Seacrest is one steady Eddie. He told a reporter in 2003 that he saw his role on the show to provide “emotional support” for the contestants.

The other reason Seacrest is in demand is that he brings order and decorum to what could easily be televised chaos. That was never more apparent than in his transformation of E!’s red-carpet awards show specials this winter.

E!’s carpet had been red with embarrassment for years, from the tawdry fashion pronouncements of Joan Rivers to Star Jones’ fawning interviews with her celebrity pals to the incident at January’s Golden Globes – just days after Seacrest signed with the network – when designer/interviewer Isaac Mizrahi grabbed actress Scarlett Johansson’s breast.

On Oscar night, it was a different E! Longtime fans may lament the dialing-down of the channel’s schlock quotient, but the show was clearly more professional under Seacrest.

Mizrahi behaved himself (“I’m not going to talk about body parts anymore, or underwear; I’ve been warned,” he said during the telecast). Seacrest was unflappable, directing traffic, keeping the show moving at a faster clip than usual while tossing off his quota of innocuous comments.

“It almost depresses me her skin is so perfect,” he sighed as he gazed at starlet Jessica Alba.

Comments like those have become grist for an unseemly gossip game being played by people who are interested in, um, what team Seacrest plays for. The thinking, such as it may be, is that he should be ogling someone like Alba, not making girlie comments about her skin.

Jay Leno told this joke recently on the “Tonight Show”: “The rumor is that Teri Hatcher is dating Ryan Seacrest in an attempt to get George Clooney’s attention. Oddly enough, Ryan is dating Teri for the exact same reason.”

For his part, Seacrest says it goes with the territory.

“I love it,” he told reporters in January. “If you’re uncomfortable being the butt of the joke, then you’re taking yourself in those roles too seriously. I’ve fortunately gotten to a place or always been in a place where I laugh at myself, too.”

Growing up, Seacrest said, his American idol was Dick Clark, who used his “Bandstand” to build a production factory that specialized in churning out low-cost, high-appeal shows like “Bloopers” and “The $20,000 Pyramid,” theme restaurants and much more.

Seacrest said he “had sat with Dick Clark years ago and asked him what his advice was, and asked him what he did to get to where he was.”

So it was both touching and appropriate that Seacrest would work side by side with Clark, clearly addled by the effects of a stroke, in putting on the latest “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

At the end, Clark turned to his co-host Seacrest, hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Said Seacrest: “It was a special moment, personally and professionally.”