"Can Tom O'Neil work on that for us?" Ryan Seacrest recently asked my journo pal Nelson Branco up in Toronto where they gabbed about the possibility of creating a new Emmy category just for hosts of reality TV shows. The "American Idol" emcee was making La Grand Tour while promoting the launch of E! Canada.

Hmmmm . . . that's an interesting Emmy idea. If hosts of game shows, talk shows and service shows can get their own categories, why not reality programs, eh?

Memo to Ryan: Let me get to work on that and get back atcha.

Ryan has already proven to be a real winner as TV host. He shared a Daytime Emmy victory last year with Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa for emceeing the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. But I'm sure he can use another, especially a complementary one in primetime.

Any win for "American Idol" would sure be appreciated at this point, considering it may soon become the biggest loser in Emmy history. Having been snubbed 22 times in the past, even in the tech races, it's just 3 losses short of tying the record held by "The Bob Newhart Show." In the rop race, for best reality program, "The Amazing Race" has zoomed past it every year since the category was created in 2003.

"People say it's an honor just to be nominated, and it doesn't matter if you don't win, but it does matter," Ryan told Nelson. "When you lose four times, you think, 'Oh, I want at least one!' And hopefully we will one day. It's much more fun to win than to lose, let's put it that way."

Photo: Ryan arriving at the Emmys last August. (AP)