Ryan Seacrest Mostly Stands Alone on Oscar Red Carpet

An hour into the live coverage from Oscars red carpet, Ryan Seacrest has mostly stood alone on the [...]

By Michael Hein

An hour into the live coverage from Oscars red carpet, Ryan Seacrest has mostly stood alone on the air. In fact, Seacrest secured only two celebrity interviews in first hour of E! coverage amid harassment scandal.

Seacrest's lonely appearance on the red carpet was first pointed out by TV writer Owen Ellickson on Twitter. Ellickson — who has written on The Office, Superstore and King of Queens, among others — began tweeting about Seacrest's presence on the show a few hours ahead of time.

He tweeted a link to a story about E!'s plan to buffer the broadcast with a 30 second delay, which many suspect is in place to allow for fast cuts in case anyone confronts Seacrest about the sexual misconduct allegations he's facing.

"reps: advise your clients to confront or steer clear. this is shaping up to be a fiasco -- get 'em out of the house before it burns down," Ellickson wrote.

Ellickson's tweets began building into a viral thread as he wrote, "holding the Seacrests of accountable isn't sufficient to clean up this town but it's absolutely necessary. and those who shrug and say 'that's how it goes' are part of the problem. that's how it's *gone*, but we can change that!"

Once the coverage started, Ellickson covered Seacrest's minute-by-minute failure to secure an interview with a movie star.

"Ryan's first interview is Sofia Carson," he tweeted. "She's working for the show, though, so may not have been at liberty to avoid it."

Not long after, he wrote, "21 minutes in, Ryan Seacrest has not spoken with anyone who doesn't work for the Oscars. going great!!!!"

He followed up again, noting that Seacrest has less screen time than in past years. "32 minutes in — we haven't seen Ryan in 15 or so."

Ellickson kept close tabs on Seacrest, tweeting "38 minutes in. Ryan Seacrest has been MIA for 21 minutes... everyone is vaaaaaampiiiiinnnngggg."

For Ellickson, the biggest victims were the people who couldn't avoid Seacrest without risking their jobs. He tweeted "sympathy to my buddy Kristin Dos Santos and everyone else who works there — your bosses put you in a stupid position here. don't let them forget it!"

Just before 6 p.m., Seacrest snagged a brief conversation with songwriter Diane Warren. Ellickson couldn't even give him credit for that interview, noting that the two are old friends. "Ryan has announced he will soon be interviewing songwriter and longtime friend Diane Warren. this could be BIG for him."

Seacrest's former stylist, Suzie Hardy, accused him of sexually harassing and assaulting her on multiple occasions. She also said that she lost her job with E! when she reported the incidents through the proper channels. The network conducted an internal investigation with a third party that turned up nothing, and no criminal charges were levelled against the 43-year-old host.

Still, many celebrities felt that they were in an awkward position with Seacrest, and weren't sure how to deal with him on screen. Many predicted that he would see fewer high profile interviews this year than in the past eleven years he has been hosting the Oscars pre-show.

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