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Washington Post

Bizarre Story About How Kelly Ripa Got Her Job on ‘Live’

Apr 28, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Amid the recent media frenzy surrounding Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan and the impending lineup change on ABC’s “Live! with Kelly and Michael,” an intriguing story resurfaced about how Ripa got her job on the show.

When Ripa returned to the show Tuesday, she noted during her opening monologue that she had been with the company for 26 years. That’s because she was a cast member on ABC’s “All My Children” going back to 1990, well before she snagged the job of second banana to Regis Philbin on “Live” back in 2001.

The Washington Post reports: “As Philbin writes in his 2011 autobiography ‘How I Got This Way,’ he and executive producer Michael Gelman were mulling ideas for his new co-host after Kathie Lee Gifford departed in 2000. They remembered that Ripa (at the time starring as Hayley on ‘All My Children’) was particularly delightful as a guest — or, in Philbin’s words, had ‘a natural, quick-witted, unaffected, confident, fun-loving kind of sparkle’ about her.”

Ripa had a tryout on the show on Nov. 1, 2000, and the guest was a Los Angeles psychic, Char Margolis, who broke the news on air that Ripa was pregnant. Ripa froze, then nervously revealed: “I haven’t told my boss yet!,” referring to her “All My Children” job.

“Obviously, Philbin and the producers were already big fans of Ripa, but that crazy incident ensured she was at the top of their list of potential co-hosts,” The Post reports. “Unsurprisingly, she got the job.”

The incident was replayed during the “Live! with Regis and Kelly” 10th anniversary show in 2011. Check it out …

2 Comments

  1. Yeah ok so???

  2. I bet you Kelly Ripa and Gelman had an affair , a casting couch and there is a photo of it out there. She is a pretty girl.

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