As soon as Ryan Seacrest got the job to host Sunday’s Emmy awards ceremony, he received a one-word text message from “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell.
“Unhappy,” the message read.
“So happy,” Seacrest said he texted back.
It could have simply been good-natured ribbing, but Seacrest believes that Cowell was indeed not pleased to see his on-air sparring partner presiding over TV’s biggest night.
“Any time the spotlight is starting to shift from him, he starts to panic a little bit,” Seacrest said.
Seacrest, who admits he’s no comic and won’t try to be one Sunday, is counting on help from “some faces we haven’t seen before on Emmy night,” he said.
For example, producers will give the actors from HBO’s recently ended “The Sopranos” a proper send-off with an onstage serenade from the cast of the Broadway musical “Jersey Boys.”
Seacrest said there’s one familiar face viewers shouldn’t expect to see come Emmy night: Cowell. Seacrest figures it would be too painful for Cowell “to be forced to look at me any longer than he has to.”
“He’s said to me he doesn’t think he’ll go,” he said. “But we’re friends. … I think he wants me to do a good job.”
