Dick Clark, that New Year’s Eve idol, to get competition

“American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest is betting a swank casino setting can help him steal some New Year’s Eve viewers away from his idol, Dick Clark.

The Fox TV talent show host and Los Angeles radio disc jockey is hosting a New Year’s television concert special in Las Vegas that pits him -- and Sin City -- against Clark’s long-running Times Square bash on ABC.

“He’s one of the people that I very much look up to,” Seacrest said. “It’s exciting for me to be on television at the same time as my idol. But I still want to win.”

Clark is 73. Seacrest turned 28 on Tuesday and thinks he can lure viewers with the “young, sexy and hip” crowd that makes it inside an invitation-only party at the lavish Venetian hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Fox’s hourlong “America’s Party” special at 11 p.m. Tuesday is to include performances from Sheryl Crow, Ashanti and Sugar Ray. The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi will appear in taped segments.

Last season’s “Idol” winner, Kelly Clarkson, couldn’t make it, Seacrest said. She was busy in Florida working on a movie named after the show.

Seacrest promised the next “Idol” would include a more diverse array of wannabe stars.

“We captured a huge spectrum of different talent this time,” he said. “There’s jazz vocalists, blues singers and rockers. I don’t think we had all of our bases covered last year.”

More than 50,000 tried out for the hit show’s second season. About 200 went to Los Angeles for taped auditions that will be broadcast on the Jan. 21 premiere. Live episodes featuring 32 finalists begin airing in early February.