The former daytime host will be back as a guest to promote 'American Idol.'
That was fast! Ryan Seacrest has already booked a return to daytime as a guest on Live With Kelly and Mark.
Seacrest will appear on Thursday's episode for the first time since exiting the series last month. The 48-year-old media mogul previously co-hosted Live with Kelly Ripa for nearly six years. His seat at the table has since been filled by Ripa's real-life husband, Mark Consuelos.
Seacrest's appearance will come days ahead of American Idol's upcoming three-hour season finale, which will air live on Sunday, May 21, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey, who recently performed "Part of Your World" on Idol, will also be a guest on Thursday's episode of Live With Kelly and Mark.
As the confetti settled on Seacrest's final Live taping last month, the then-co-hosts spoke with ET and joked that Seacrest would never truly leave. "I think I'm on the schedule for July," he teased, though it appears that Seacrest has now bested even his own prediction.
"We champion Ryan no matter what he does," Ripa said at the time. "We are like, team Ryan forever."
After Seacrest announced his exit, a source told ET in February that he had "been contemplating leaving the show for years and has been very conflicted."
"He truly loves working with Kelly and the Live crew. However, with American Idol's upcoming season filming in Los Angeles and other opportunities, he felt leaving the show was the right thing to do," the source said.
As for choosing Consuelos as Seacrest's replacement, the source said the decision "was easy."
"The network and Kelly wanted to avoid her and a new co-host not hitting it off," the source said. "Mark and Kelly have hosted before and it's always gone well with fan reaction."
Ahead of his final day as co-host, Seacrest hosted a farewell dinner for the Live staff, whom he thanked for making his run a truly incredible experience.
"There really is no other place in our business like the Live show," Seacrest said in his speech at the dinner. "I'm grateful to have been a part [of it] for six years."
On top of American Idol, Seacrest will also continue to host his radio show on KIIS-FM and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve, as well as focus his summer on opening three more Ryan Seacrest Foundation Studios in pediatric hospitals across the country, which help patients to explore the creative realms of radio, television and new media.
While these jobs are demanding and his foundation's mission is an incredibly noble cause, one thing they all have in common is that the spotlight belongs to those he's helping make a difference in their lives.
And therein lies the exact reason why Ripa told ET she's glad Seacrest, despite a heavy load on his plate, decided to join her for nearly six years as her Live co-host: the daytime show helped showcase him and his talents.
"It's the one thing I have to say that I am so happy about because I've always known -- and we've always known here -- who Ryan is, at his core, but all of his jobs are about featuring other people," she said. "And I'm so glad that we got to feature Ryan because he is, I always say, one in a zillion."
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