American Idol alum Brian Dunkleman promotes new Family Feud Live gig after controversy over Uber job

American Idol alum Brian Dunkleman promotes new Family Feud Live gig after controversy over driving Uber

Brian Dunkleman has a new gig in show business.

The 47-year-old TV personality, best known for co-hosting American Idol alongside Ryan Seacrest in its smash hit 2002 debut season, will hit the road as an announcer on the Family Feud Live: Celebrity Edition tour.

‘I’m joining the @familyfeudlive tour this fall as the announcer, COME ON DOWN! (wrong show),’ the Ellicottville, New York native said Monday in an Instagram post.

Survey says: Ex-American Idol host Brian Dunkleman, 47, will hit the road as an announcer on the Family Feud Live: Celebrity Edition tour this fall. He was snapped in Hollywood in 2016

Dunkleman will join fellow comics Tom Arnold, Chris Kattan and Pauly Shore on the live adaptation of the game show, as they will be captains of teams populated with attendees.

‘It’s a star-powered live version of the wildly popular TV game show,’ the show says on its website. ‘Join our fun and famous celebrity team captains and have a chance at becoming a member of their on-stage “family.”‘

Family Feud Live: Celebrity Edition kicks off October 23 in Morristown, New Jersey, and weaves through locales on the East Coast and Southeast until wrapping up in Biloxi, Mississippi November 17.

Dunkleman was in the headlines earlier this year amid reports he was driving for Uber.

Ensemble: Dunkleman will join fellow comics Tom Arnold, Chris Kattan and Pauly Shore on the live adaptation of the game show

Ensemble: Dunkleman will join fellow comics Tom Arnold, Chris Kattan and Pauly Shore on the live adaptation of the game show

Onstage: Dunkleman was snapped performing in Pasadena in May of 2013

Onstage: Dunkleman was snapped performing in Pasadena in May of 2013 

He took to Twitter January 3 to explain how the gig made sense given his life circumstances raising his son Jackson amid his split with wife Kalea Dunkleman.

‘I chose to stop doing standup comedy and started driving an Uber so I could be there for my son as much as he needed after our life as we knew it was destroyed,’ he said.

Dunkleman opened up about his exodus from the show after its first season in a 2016 Variety piece as the series was wrapping up on Fox. (ABC rebooted it the following year for a 2018 premiere, bringing back Seacrest.)

On his leaving the show, Dunkleman said what happened remained unclear more than a decade later.

Together again: Dunkleman and Ryan Seacrest were reunited for a 2016 American Idol show

Together again: Dunkleman and Ryan Seacrest were reunited for a 2016 American Idol show 

‘Did I quit? Did I get fired? All these years later, I still don’t know for sure,’ he said in a 2016 piece for Variety. ‘I probably beat them to the punch. I wanted to have an acting career, and I knew that leaving when I did would give me the best shot of accomplishing that. Still working on it.

‘But the undeniable truth is, I just didn’t have the wisdom at the time to handle what was happening.’

He admitted remorse over the professional miscue.

‘Do I regret not remaining on the show now that it’s coming to an end? Yes. Especially when I open my bank statements,’ he wrote. ‘But without the benefit of hindsight, I would have done the exact same thing.’

Dunkleman said he was happy to have a spot in the annals of entertainment.

‘All I know for sure, is that I was a part of history,’ he wrote. ‘I made it. Regardless of how history judges me, nobody can ever take that away from me. And as far as that acting career? Well, I ain’t dead yet.’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk