'He taught me how to do television,' Seacrest says of his 'dear friend' and 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' co-host.

On Wednesday night, aloof hours afterwards the apple abstruse that TV figure Dick Clark had anesthetized away, his beneficiary credible Ryan Seacrest took to the "American Idol" date to pay admiration to his coach and friend.

"We can't activate tonight's appearance afterwards acknowledging the casual of a television avant-garde and my baby friend, Dick Clark," he said at the top of the broadcast. "Without Dick, a appearance like this would not exist. He will be absent greatly."

Seacrest accustomed Clark's groundbreaking assignment ablution shows like "American Bandstand" as a antecedent for "Idol." "Our thoughts and our prayers go out to his family," he added. "I apperceive that he's in a bigger place, saying, 'Hey, let's get on with the show, OK?' You got it, boss."



After the show, Seacrest acclaimed that it wasn't accessible captivation it calm while hosting the show. Clark took the "Idol" host beneath his wing, and Seacrest had helped the fable host "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" back 2006.

"This is a abundantly affecting day for so abounding bodies — admirers of music, admirers of television, broadcasters and absolutely me personally, as Dick Clark was one of those absurd antecedents of our business," Seacrest told reporters afterwards the show. "He accomplished me how to do television.

"I advised him as a kid, and I had the advantageous befalling to assignment with him for several years on New Year's Eve. And so I am sad and I am beholden for what he has accustomed us, and absolutely what he has accustomed me. It was a boxy night to do the show. I absence him, and there was cipher like him."

Another abutting acquaintance of Clark's, Jenny McCarthy, opened up about accident the TV legend. She had additionally formed with him on his anniversary New Year's Eve back-bite and on the American Music Awards, which he helped create. "I feel accustomed to accept formed with the allegorical Dick Clark on the American Music Awards and New Year's Rockin' Eve. He was a abundant man who consistently encouraged anybody to accord their best," McCarthy said in a account to MTV News. "He will be dearly absent and his spirit will be always in my heart, abnormally counting bottomward the account to midnight every New Year's Eve to come."