Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell
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CelebNews@Usmagazine.com! - Seacrest to Simon Cowell: Your Ego Is Getting Out of Control!

It hasn't even been one month since American Idol's sixth season wrapped and TV's hottest odd couple, Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, parted ways. But the pair is already duking it out.

During a recent press junket to promote the launch of E! News in Canada, Seacrest acknowledged that Idol's ratings, while still atop the Nielsen Ratings, had slipped last season - and jokingly blamed Cowell for the significant slump.

"Well, the knee-jerk reaction would be Simon," Seacrest told the Toronto Globe and Mail, in response to the ratings slide. "Clearly there's an over-saturation of his character."

Seacrest's tongue-in-cheek ribbing was nothing if not good-natured, as the host revealed this morning on his KIIS-FM radio show. Dialing up his Brit pal to clear up rumors of a feud, Seacrest argued that Cowell, who co-created Idol, "believe[s] that [he's] created
everything for all of us."

"Everything good goes to you," Seacrest told the acerbic judge. "If there's any hiccup along the way, we are obligated to blame you. You want the credit, you get the blame."

"When I'm allowed more airtime," Cowell countered, "we get 34 million viewers. When I say nothing and you're talking, we get 12 million less."

"There's a little bit of an ego getting out of control with you," Seacrest shot back. Cowell's solution to drive ratings for season seven? "Let us talk more. When I say us, I mean me."

The voice of Idol reason, who was also hawking his other reality show, Britain's Got Talent, chuckled when reminding Seacrest that he had his chance to shine.

"I offered you Romania's Got Talent and you declined!" Cowell said with a hearty laugh.

With that, Seacrest, who recently performed a widely praised comedic cameo in the film Knocked Up, offered the final straw. "I know you're upset they didn't ask you to be in Knocked Up," he told the judge. "It's okay that [director] Judd Apatow didn't call you. You can't be everywhere all the time. You're one old man!"

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