Brian Dunkleman

Dunkleman was a co-host with Eric the Midget on The Idol Re-cap Show on Sirius’s Howard 101. He also did voice over for the 1st season of American Idol Rewind.

In November 2019, Dunkleman was on the third episode of Season 1 of the CNBC series Back in the Game, hosted by Alex Rodriguez.

On April 7, 2016, Dunkleman appeared on the American Idol fifteenth season and (initial) series finale. In an interview following the show, Dunkleman said "I think I beat them to the punch and I didn't know. I left the show but from what I gather, they weren't going to have me back anyway. So it's kind of a big load off my shoulders. I guess I didn't make a mistake. I didn't do a good enough job and I don't think I handled myself as professionally as I needed to back then."

After a brief return to his home town of Ellicottville, New York, in 2016, Dunkleman currently resides in Los Angeles. He is married and has one son.

In 2009, Dunkleman pitched a TV series about his life after American Idol entitled American Dunkleman. The series is a fictional account of the actor-comic's life, following the fictional Dunkleman as he tries to work his way back to the television industry, embarrassing himself and disappointing his friends while constantly being reminded that he "could have been a millionaire" had he stuck with Idol.

During his 2008 appearance on the sixth season of the reality television weight loss show, Celebrity Fit Club on which he lost 15 pounds, and won the grand prize with his team, he spoke about his reasons for leaving American Idol following its first season. He stated his departure was due to the terrible way they treated the young contestants on the show, staging the fights between the judges and reshooting contestants with producer-provided glycerin tears in their eyes. He went on to say that leaving the show was a mistake. However, Ian K. Smith, one of the doctors on the panel, opined that he made the right decision.

In appearances on The Howard Stern Show, he had insisted that he intended to leave Idol to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and acting, but in 2008, Dunkleman admitted to Stern that he believed leaving the show was a mistake. Dunkleman conceded that he experienced several months of depression, and also still harbored resentment against current show host Ryan Seacrest, but has come to terms with his situation. Stern has compared Dunkleman to Pete Best of The Beatles and several other famous celebrities who chose to leave (or were forced to leave) successful show business careers, only to wind up as has-beens. In 2016, Dunkleman would backtrack and say that the mutual decision to part ways was not a mistake on his part.

In 2002 Dunkleman appeared as the co-host with Ryan Seacrest during the first season of American Idol. After the season ended, it was reported that Dunkleman had quit from co-hosting. Various news outlets later on said that he "had his career completely destroyed" for doing so, before it became enormously popular and made Seacrest very wealthy. However, one journalist believes that Dunkleman would have been fired had he not quit earlier, a fact numerous Idol staffers would eventually admit: Dunkleman had submitted his resignation shortly before news of his firing could reach him.

In 2000 Dunkleman appeared in "The One with the Ring", a sixth season episode of Friends, as the man who buys the engagement ring Chandler wants to buy Monica.

Brian Dunkleman (born September 25, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, and television personality. He is best known as being co-host with Ryan Seacrest on the first season of American Idol, in 2002.