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People, Fox News, Redbook

ABC’s Kelly Ripa-Michael Strahan Team May Be Permanently Broken

Apr 22, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Even with Kelly Ripa scheduled to return Tuesday to co-host ABC’s “Live with Kelly and Michael,” insiders are saying it is unlikely that Ripa and co-host Michael Strahan will ever host the show together again.

People magazine quotes a source saying: “I don’t believe that co-hosting together is a viable option anymore. Anything is possible, but that doesn’t seem like a viable option. Practically, it’s a different dynamic now.”

Ripa had already planned to take off Thursday through Monday to celebrate her 20th anniversary with her husband, Mark Consuelos. But after Strahan dropped the bombshell Tuesday that he will be leaving the show to take on a full-time role on “Good Morning America,” Ripa opted out of showing up for work Wednesday.

A source told People that Ripa canceled her anniversary trip.

Another source is quoted in the report saying: “Michael has called her and reached out to her and texted her, and she is not acknowledging him. The source says Ripa has not been communicating with management, and adds: “Nobody knows if she will return to work Tuesday or not, and the people are very nervous. They’re flying blind.”

Fox News, meanwhile, is reporting that any on-air chemistry between Ripa and Strahan has been faked. And any current tension between the two co-hosts “is hardly a surprise. For all their on-air chemistry, Ripa, 45, and Strahan, 44, were far from the closest of colleagues, insiders dished,” according to the Fox report.

Fox quotes a source close to Ripa saying that Ripa and Strahan “did not get along. It was all for the show. They could not stand each other, and whenever they communicated off-camera, it was always through their reps.”

Even so, most sources are pointing the finger at ABC execs, and not at Strahan, for the poor handling of the situation. Redbook notes that Ripa’s anger at being “blindsided” has been aimed  in particular at “Live!” executive producer Michael Gelman and WABC-TV general manager Dave Davis.

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3 Comments

  1. This is a tough business. KR should put her big girl pants on and get back to work. The first word in show biz is show.

  2. If the two co-hosts don’t get along with each other, Kelly Ripa should be celebrating the departure of Michael Strahan’s departure from the show. It shouldn’t matter to Kelly Ripa, how she found out about his departure.

  3. She is not acting like a grown up. I’ve lost a lot of respect for her.

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