Ryan Seacrest 'Confident' He Can Host His Own Talk Show After Exiting 'Live!': Source

Ryan Seacrest is looking to put his hat in the ring!

An inside source recently shared that the former American Idol host has begun planning his own solo talk show after leaving Live with Kelly & Ryan.

The star originally had his own show in 2004 called On Air with Ryan Seacrest, which bombed after only eight months due to low viewership. However, the 48-year-old believes it may be different this time around, as he can pull viewers from his American Idol cohorts Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, who now have their own daytime talk shows.

"Ryan believes he helped make the careers of Kelly and Jennifer to the point where they landed their own talk shows," a friend of Seacrest revealed. "While he loves the both of them, he’s gunning for them now!"

"Ryan says he was a lot younger then and he didn’t quite know what he was doing trying to pull off his own talk show," they continued of his first solo gig. "As much as things went south working with Ripa on Live, he says he gained invaluable experience and can put his best foot forward this time around."

Seacrest sees a market for a male talk show host amongst a female-dominated scene, including Clarkson, Hudson, Drew Barrymore, Sherri Shepherd, Tamron Hall and The View.

Insiders also spilled that Seacrest is staying optimistic about his future after Live! was bashed by critics due to Kelly Ripa bringing in her husband, Mark Consuelos, to replace him.

"Ryan has a lot of confidence he can succeed," the source said. "And he has more showbiz contacts than anyone."

"He believes he can pull big name guests away from rivals Kelly and Jennifer — and even Kelly Ripa," they admitted.

As OK! previously reported, it was recently announced that Seacrest will return to his old show as a guest on Live with Kelly & Mark on Thursday, May 18.

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The return isn't much of a surprise to fans considering the TV personality confessed he’d pop in every now and then when he first announced he’d be leaving the program.

"This isn't the end, I'm going to be back," he said in February. "This place is remarkable. I'm going to miss coming into this studio to see the people who have worked here for so long. It is about the people here; it's a family at Live and they adopted me for a little while and I'm grateful for that. ... So I'll definitely be visiting from time to time."