Logo

E! News, NY Daily News, TVWeek, ABC

Rumors Fly After Kelly Ripa Pulls a No-Show on ABC’s ‘Live with Kelly and Michael’

Apr 20, 2016  •  Post A Comment

On the second day of shockers surrounding the ABC morning mainstay “Live with Kelly and Michael,” co-host Kelly Ripa was a no-show this morning, one day after news broke that her co-host, Michael Strahan, is leaving the program. Ripa’s absence sparked a number of rumors, with E! News reporting that Ripa was “livid” about the handling of Strahan’s exit.

The E! News story reports that Ripa was “blindsided” by Tuesday’s announcement, getting word at about the same time that it went public. “About an hour after ‘Live! with Kelly and Michael’ aired Monday, an internal memo at ABC revealed he would be leaving the show by summer’s end to work on ‘Good Morning America’ full time,” E! News reports. “His co-host, Kelly Ripa, did not receive a heads up. In fact, E! News has learned that executives broke the news to her just after the show finished taping — around the same time everyone else first heard about it. ‘She was livid,’ a source says exclusively. ‘It wasn’t pretty.'”

Strahan appeared on this morning’s show with “Saturday Night Live” alumna Ana Gasteyer at his side, and offered little explanation, saying simply: “Kelly’s off today, and filling in for Kelly is Ana Gasteyer.” He then briefly discussed his upcoming move to “GMA.”

The New York Daily News put it this way: “Kelly Ripa left her co-host Michael Strahan hanging Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after he apparently ambushed her with news he’d be leaving their show for ‘Good Morning America.’”

The plan calls for Strahan to stay with “Live” through August and make the move in September to “GMA,” where he has been doing guest spots for some time.

The Daily News adds: “Strahan’s slight makes Ripa twice scorned by her TV husbands: Regis Philbin, who co-hosted alongside her until 2011, dropped the bomb that he’d be leaving just 15 minutes before they went on air, according to a TMZ report. He informed the live audience shortly afterward.”

Meanwhile, speculation has begun about who will replace Strahan as Ripa’s co-host. Among the names that are already circulating are Anderson Cooper, Neil Patrick Harris, Andy Cohen and Mark Consuelos, Ripa’s husband.

Here’s a clip posted by the show this morning in which Strahan, alongside fill-in co-host Gasteyer, officially announces his plans to the “Live with Kelly and Michael” audience.

5 Comments

  1. Yeah Kelly needs to grow up and realize it is what it is. Quit being a baby and making this all about her. I won’t watch the show when Michael leaves. I love him…cannot stand Ripa.

  2. The problem remains, obviously, that so-called “management” people are anything but real management.

    The right thing would have been to inform Ms. Ripa in a human way in advance of the public announcement.

    Real manager is hard to find these days. If they want one, have them call me. I believe in, and have always practiced, respect for all concerned within every entity with which I’ve been involved.

    Peter Bright

  3. Michael is a dumb dumb I glad he going and giving him a year he will off the networks for good.

  4. Well, I’m sure “the networks” are anxious for advice from someone with your grammatical brilliance.

  5. This sounds just like a very messy divorce, unfortunately. The network absolutely should have given Kelly more notice. She’s been loyal to them, and the ratings are good. No wonder she feels insulted — they insulted her!

Leave a Reply to Terri T. Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)