New 'Wheel of Fortune' host Ryan Seacrest solid in season opener

New set, new lighting, new gold laminate (or was that just more gold laminate?). Meanwhile, something else was new on the Sept. 9 season opener of TV's most popular game show, "Wheel of Fortune." New, but also terribly familiar, he's TV's supreme one-size-fits-all host with those ready-to-wear vibes who neither grates nor offends, but has just enough edge to prevent him from vanishing altogether on the screen.

A goldilocks TV host if ever there was one, Ryan Seacrest did seem just about right in this latest gig (of many). And if perfection proves elusive over the coming days and weeks, there's always the emergency backup because Pat Sajak — not entirely out the door just yet — will return to host ABC's celebrity edition of "Wheel" in October.

Walking out arm in arm with Vanna White — no introduction needed there — Seacrest launched right into the thank-yous, and glad-to-be-heres: "I am your host, Ryan Seacrest, and I still can't believe my luck in being here with you tonight to continue the legacy of this incredible show with all of you."

He then called this a "dream job," and a show he'd been watching since growing up in Atlanta, and (for good measure) he also "knows just how special it is that 'Wheel' has been in your living room the past 40 years, so I'm grateful to be invited in."

"I've got very big shoes to fill, so let's play 'Wheel of Fortune.' "

Whose shoes, exactly, was left unsaid — an unfortunate ellipsis that you can be certain was noted by the original owner of those shoes, along with a few million other viewers. It was an odd misstep the first night that didn't feel like a misstep at all, but purposeful and scripted (or unscripted, as the case may be). It's also the sort of thing everyone will be talking about on Sept. 10.

But get past that — even if Pat doesn't — and opening night was a solid one for the new guy, who clearly has both the alphabet and game down cold. He's a little more jaunty and upbeat than his predecessor who was (truthfully) getting a little cranky toward the end (43 years and 8,000 episodes will do that.)

Nevertheless, what's in store for Seacrest — beyond a future that may also be measured in decades — is risk. He's already one of the most overextended, if not yet overexposed, figures on TV and radio, and is overseer of a whole other empire, notably the various unscripted franchises (like the various Kardashian ones) that he produces.

How much is too much? Only Ryan knows for sure, but for now, or at least one night only, he looked like he was born to be the new host of "Wheel."

Indeed, it's freaky how perfectly bespoke he is. Now, about those shoes.