Well let you know as soon as Live! with Michael and Kelly wraps up and starts looking for a new co-host to sit in the chair opposite Kelly Ripa. ABC initially planned to have Strahan co-host “Live” until the end of the summer then move to “Good Morning America” full-time. “How dare you leave Kelly!”
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As if more proof were needed that 2016 has jumped the shark, consider this: Morning television’s Kelly Ripa, a woman who would seem to have oh, zero percent in common with American workers, is somehow the person who has triggered a national conversation on communication and respect in the workplace, and the challenges of being female and over 40 in corporate America.
When Regis Philbin announced his surprise retirement from “Live!” in 2011, it took the network almost a year and several failed attempts to find Kelly a new co-host to train and develop a partnership with. “I think she is of mixed minds”, one source close to the program said.
Ripa’s journey to success and limelight was a bizaare and uncanny one because she landed the job without proper measures and preparation. I always speak from the heart.
“Obviously, Philbin and the producers were already big fans of Ripa, but that insane incident ensured she was at the top of their list of potential co-hosts”, The Post reports.
“I want to turn on the TV and have it be like my parents in the ’70s”, she said.
If you didn’t catch Ripa’s pained expression on Tuesday’s show, when she took her seat after her statement and listened to Strahan say, with a straight face, “I love you….”
If Ripa performed like a champ, it’s important to remember that she paid her dues at ABC as a young up-and-coming starlet on the one-time hit soap opera “All My Children”.
“If they had talked with her early on and made her part of the solution, they would have diffused the entire situation, both avoiding a PR nightmare and at the same time getting her on board to help solve the problem created as a result of Michael’s departure”.
Regardless, Strahan was left to awkwardly tell viewers about his departure while seated next to substitute co-host Ana Gasteyer on Wednesday. Ripa joked in front of an uncomfortable Strahan, who responded with an awkward, “Wow”.
“Unless one of them can come on, she doesn’t really want to do [Live!]”, a source told Us Weekly.
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Michael Strahan’s abrupt exit from Live With Kelly and Michael is causing quite the media frenzy. And “Live!” is the No. 2 most-watched daytime show for a reason – lots of people enjoy the chemistry and banter between Strahan and Ripa.
