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Here’s one thing you and I have in common with Ryan Seacrest: None of us knows whatever happened to Brian Dunkleman.

“I haven’t spoken to Brian since the last episode we did together in Season 1 of ‘American Idol,’ ” Seacrest said recently of his former sidekick.

Like a discarded booster rocket, Dunkleman fell away as “Idol” soared into the stratosphere. Four years later the 31-year-old Seacrest is captain of the ship, having developed into a megahost, a species I thought had gone away when three TV channels became 300 and radio fragmented into a boutique mall.

With each triumphant season — “Idol” is now the No. 1 show in TV and its audience is growing — more offers are thrown at Seacrest’s feet. Apparently he takes all of them.

Behind the scenes he is building an empire that reminds many industry watchers of the rise of another pop music host, Dick Clark. On the radio, meantime, Seacrest has stepped into the shoes of Casey Kasem as host of “American Top 40” and legendary L.A. DJ Rick Dees.

Seacrest also fills in for Larry King regularly on CNN. And this week E! aired the first in a series of Barbara Walters-like interviews that Seacrest will conduct with celebrities in their homes. (“Eva Longoria: The Interview With Ryan Seacrest” re-airs at 4 p.m. Thursday on E!)

About the only old-school broadcast great I can’t seem to tie Seacrest to is Regis Philbin. But then, as Philbin would say, he’s only one man … a man who has come a long way since hosting the NBC “Saturday Night Movie” six years ago.

“I have a lot that I want to do,” the Atlanta native told TV critics at January’s press conference. “I’m fulfilled now with the hosting and talent aspect of my career. I’m not fulfilled with the production aspect of my career.”

Full and filled would certainly describe the hosting aspect. Two years ago Seacrest took over one of the most revered jobs in radio, the morning drive program on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles that had been hosted for more than two decades by Dees.

Five hours of morning radio is the gig that seems to inspire awe in industry types and ordinary folk alike. Earlier this month freshly ousted “Idol” contestant Bucky Covington called in to “The Ryan Seacrest Show,” and the host asked the country boy (who sounded on the radio like Boomhauer from the TV show “King of the Hill”) what had surprised him most about his time in L.A.

“You,” Covington gushed. “Nobody has any idea how many hours you put in your job.”

Actually we do know how many hours he puts into his job, thanks to an intrepid Boston Herald reporter who detailed a recent day in the life of Seacrest. It begins shortly after 4 a.m., an hour before his KIIS-FM show goes on the air, and continues late mornings at E! where Seacrest works on “E! News Daily” and other programs he produces and hosts for the channel.

His day ends either at (a) CBS Television City, where “Idol” is taped; (b) the studios of “American Top 40,” the radio countdown show he took over in 2004; (c) the L.A. bureau of CNN, whenever King needs a sub; (d) wherever he is when he’s developing his fashion line or; (e) home, which will soon be the $11.5 million Hollywood Hills manse Seacrest reportedly took off Kevin Costner’s hands.

Why he takes all the work is a mystery. Why he gets the work isn’t.

First, as he proved during that debut season of “American Idol,” Seacrest is one steady Eddie. He told a reporter in 2003 that he saw his role on the show to provide “emotional support” for the contestants.

Fox didn’t think that was enough. The network wanted to bring back Dunkleman, but he walked away (recently he told The Associated Press he had found the show too “cruel” for his blood). In Season 2, Fox tried pairing Seacrest with “special correspondent” Kristen Holt before eventually seeing the light.

Dunkleman failed to grasp that “Idol,” and most such programs, need an unusual talent at the center, part lion tamer (for managing the oversized egos of the judges), part mayor (for managing the fragile egos of the talent). Jeff Probst understood that in the early seasons of CBS’ “Survivor” and worked his way up from a peripheral role on the show to bona fide TV star. I also notice that bossy Nancy O’Dell is no longer host of “Nashville Star,” the country music version of “Idol,” and her place has been taken by the warm, supportive Wynonna.

The other reason Seacrest is in demand is that he brings order and decorum to what could easily be televised chaos. That was never more apparent than in his transformation of E!’s red carpet specials this winter.

E!’s carpet had been red with embarrassment for years, from the tawdry fashion pronouncements of Joan Rivers to Star Jones’ fawning interviews with her celeb pals to, most recently, an incident just days after Seacrest signed with E! when designer/interviewer Isaac Mizrahi grabbed actress Scarlett Johansson’s breast.

On Oscar night, though, it was a different E! Longtime fans may lament the dialing-down of the channel’s schlock quotient, but the Oscar red carpet was clearly more professional under Seacrest. Mizrahi behaved himself (“I’m not going to talk about body parts anymore, or underwear; I’ve been warned,” he said during the telecast). Seacrest was unflappable, directing traffic, and he kept the show moving at a faster clip than usual while tossing off his quota of innocuous comments.

“It almost depresses me her skin is so perfect,” he sighed as he gazed at starlet Jessica Alba.

Comments like those, unfortunately, have become grist for an unseemly gossip game being played by people who are really interested in what team Seacrest plays for. The thinking, such as it may be, is that Seacrest should be ogling someone like Alba, not making girlie comments about her skin.

Jay Leno told this joke recently on the “Tonight Show”: “The rumor is that Teri Hatcher is dating Ryan Seacrest in an attempt to get George Clooney’s attention. Oddly enough, Ryan is dating Teri for the exact same reason.”

For his part, Seacrest said it goes with the territory.

“I love it,” he told reporters in January. “If you’re uncomfortable being the butt of the joke, then you’re taking yourself in those roles too seriously. I’ve fortunately gotten to a place or always been in a place where I laugh at myself, too.”

Growing up, Seacrest said, his American idol was Dick Clark, who used his “Bandstand” to build a production factory that specialized in churning out low-cost, high-appeal shows like “Bloopers” and “The $20,000 Pyramid,” theme restaurants and much more.

Seacrest said he “had sat with Dick Clark years ago and asked him what his advice was, and asked him what he did to get to where he was.”

So it was both touching and appropriate that Seacrest would work side by side with Clark, clearly addled by the effects of a stroke, in putting on this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” At the end, Clark turned to his co-host Seacrest, hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“It was a special moment personally and professionally,” Seacrest recalled.

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