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American Morning

'American Idol' Co-host Discusses Final Contest

Aired September 04, 2002 - 09:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, Kelly and Justin, head to head. The final battle. Who will it be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know. I guess you are going to have to stay tuned. It's the morning after the great "American Idol" showdown and two finalists, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini -- how do you say his name?: Guarini -- still don't know the viewers have chosen. They will find out along with the rest of us later on tonight. "American Idol" has become the hit show on TV this summer, millions tuning in every week to see the would-be pop stars perform.

And co-host Ryan Seacrest is riding the wave of success. He joins us from Los Angeles.

Good to see you. Thanks for getting up so early for us this morning.

RYAN SEACREST, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN IDOL": Ryan Seacrest It's my pleasure. Good morning.

So if you had to call and vote, who would you call and vote for, Paula?

ZAHN: Can I make a confession?

SEACREST: Sure. You've never seen it.

ZAHN: I haven't been exposed to either one of these performers -- but who do you think...

(CROSSTALK)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Say Kelly.

ZAHN: Bill is rooting for Kelly. He said she is a shoe-in.

SEACREST: Bill thinks it's Kelly.

ZAHN: Do you think she is going to win?

SEACREST: But -- I don't know if Kelly's going to win. The results are live tonight. But the judges certainly had some wonderful things to say about Kelly's performance last night. If people are going to vote based on what they said, I think they set Kelly up to possibly win tonight.

ZAHN: Let's talk about, you know, the calling in, because there has been some controversy, has there not, with blocks of people calling in, power calling, to try to change the results of the contest? Could that happen tonight? Or do you think that is going to happen tonight?

SEACREST: You know, that was something in the news for a little while. And I think that they resolved that issue, if it was even a major issue. From the information that I saw, it was maybe 1 percent or less of the calls were possibly from power dialers and it wasn't effecting the end result at all.

I think that at this point, both Kelly and Justin have developed such a huge fan base -- they are now household names -- and it is just going to be a matter of whether or not their fans actually pick up the phone, turn up and call, because we saw with one of our finalists, Tamyra Gray, who shockingly was eliminated, I think people took it for granted that she was going to move on. So our advice to people has been if you think that you are a for-sure thing, don't think that: Pick up the phone and call and vote, whether it be Justin, because you think he is so cute and a great singer, or Kelly, just because she gives you chills. Last night, these hairs, these blonde hairs right here on my forearm...

ZAHN: They were all standing up for both performances?

SEACREST: Well, I will make a confession to you: I think that more stood up when Kelly Clarkson sang her second song.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Oh, we knew we could get the real deal out of you this morning.

Let's talk about...

SEACREST: I can't call and vote.

ZAHN: Let's talk about the parade of talented people you have you seen since the beginning of the series, starting -- you had, what, some 10,000 people audition; you are now down to two. How do you explain the fact that Justin and Kelly survived when so many other talented others were thrusted aside?

SEACREST: Well, I think when we met both Justin, in New York City -- he's from Pennsylvania -- and Kelly, in Texas, we knew that they had something special. The judges certainly pointed out the fact that they had the potential for this X factor, which is a term we use and they use on the show. What I think set them apart was the fact that each of them grew with each week that went by. They accepted the challenges of singing songs in genres that were not necessarily within their comfort zones, they listened to what the judges had to say when they felt like it was most appropriate, and came back and they gave stellar live performances each and every week. As Paula, as you guys know, you and Bill know, you are doing a live show, anything can go wrong. And they have displayed tremendous poise throughout this entire process. So they certainly both deserve to be the two finalists.

And no matter -- you want to win the race. This is a race, at the end of the day. You want to be the one that wins the race. But I also believe very strongly that Justin and Kelly, no matter wins or who loses, will have huge careers.

ZAHN: We know you are going to have one as well. This thing is -- they are talking about expanding it to a whole bunch of different international markets.

Ryan Seacrest, again, good luck to you.

SEACREST: Thanks for having me on.

ZAHN: And you know what?: I might be watching tonight.

SEACREST: Please.

ZAHN: Especially since you told me what your arm was doing last night.

Take care.

SEACREST: I didn't tell you all of it, Paula.

ZAHN: No, I know. That's why you teased me, and I'm going to watch.

Take care, and continued good luck with the series.

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