Dear Gossips,

They made a big ass deal this morning over Ryan Seacrest on The Today Show on NBC. Since signing a massive $300 million deal with Clear Channel a couple of months ago, there’s been a lot of speculation about whether or not Seacrest would be quitting American Idol and taking over from Matt Lauer. It was confirmed today that, for the time being, Matt’s safe on daytime but that Seacrest’s presence on NBC would begin at the Olympics, on prime time.

So it is, indeed, a new world. I love the Olympics. I am obsessed with the Olympics. I have been an Olympic junkie since I can remember. The Olympics made me crush - HARD - on Michael Phelps. (No one hates me more than I hate myself for this.) And it took me MONTHS to get over it. I’ve always associated watching American Olympic coverage - the Canadian broadcast shows the events live, without time delay so the viewing schedule at our place is always Canadian coverage first, US coverage later on NBC, to see how they end up “Hollywood-ing” the events after editing - with Bob Costas at the desk and Jimmy Roberts’s cut pieces. These days, Bob and Jimmy aren’t enough. And, well, I guess it makes sense.

After all, for years, as just mentioned, they’ve been adding drama to what’s inherently dramatic. Sport is drama. Athletic achievement, under such intense pressure, is pure dramatic. The best kind of drama. If Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte go head to head in the 200m IM, that sh-t produces itself. Like, I’m already excited and we still have 4 months to go. But that doesn’t seem like it’s enough these days. It doesn’t seem like it’s enough until Phelps and Lochte are given the E! treatment. Which is probably how that business will be cut by the time they put it on the air. Tears and slamming doors, text fighting and locked jaws, dirty looks and maybe even a fake romance with a fellow swimmer on the line...

Seacrest is responsible for his share of reality television after all. What could be more reality than actual reality with some Kardashian on top of it?

Yours in gossip,

Lainey