Drama on the set of Live with Kelly and Michael. Apparently, Kelly Ripa was totally blindsided when news broke yesterday that her co-host, Michael Strahan, would be leaving Live to take a full time position on the ABC’s, Good Morning America.
Reportedly Kelly was so upset that she was left out of the information loop by ABC, that she was a no show on Live this morning. SNL alum Ana Gasteyer filled in for her.
TMZ reports:
Our sources tell us Kelly made the decision shortly after she was informed Strahan was bailing on her show to co-host “Good Morning America.” We broke the story Kelly was told at 10:30 AM Tuesday, just as the announcement was being blasted out to the media … and she was outraged.
We’re told Kelly feels disrespected and humiliated that she wasn’t given the courtesy of a heads-up. Our sources say she may not show for the foreseeable future.
The ‘Live’ staff is furious at Disney and CEO Bob Iger’s decision to keep them in the dark.
“I’m leaving this show,” Strahan announced to the Live audience Wednesday morning. “I’m going over to GMA full time, which is going to happen in September.”
He went on to quip, “I was reading some stuff and it sounded like I died! I’m sayin’ it’s not a eulogy people!”
He ended the short announcement by thanking fans of the show. “You guys have been absolutely amazing.” He also spoke of working with an “incredible staff” and that he will always be available to the show. “I’m always here! I’m always available to guest co-host if I get a call, because I consider myself to be a part of this family forever.”
We’ll see if Kelly returns to the set tomorrow…
UPDATE: At the end of the show, either Michael thought better of not thanking Kelly at the top of the show, or he completely forgot. In any case, he signed off today with this:
“I really want to thank, of course, Kelly Ripa,” he said. “Kelly welcomed me here, and I’ve learned so much from her. She’s just been an amazing influence on me and this has truly changed my life to be here with her.”
“And I know that the show will continue to be strong and great because of Kelly … and the staff here because everybody here is so talented,” he added. “This show has not been around for over 30 years by mistake.”
“Kelly, I thank you. I love you and everyone else here at Live!, and I’m not going to cry on TV momma, I promise you,” he concluded.
Additional details about how ABC kept the entire Live staff out of the loop, also speculation the show will be bumped out of the 9 AM time slot, from TMZ. Reportedly, the big reason Michael is joining GMA is to help them regain dominance in morning news over the Today show. Currently, NBC airs 4 hours of news in the morning. It would make sense for ABC to expand GMA’s hours as well.
Our ABC sources say Kelly — and virtually everyone on her show — feels Disney has screamed to the world they don’t care about ‘Live’ … their singular focus is breathing life into ‘GMA,’ which has lost a big chunk of its audience over the last year.
We’re told there’s serious talk about giving ‘Live’ the boot at 9 AM and adding a third hour to ‘GMA.’ It’s unclear if Disney is eyeing a time slot later in the morning for Kelly’s show. It’s pretty incredible, since ‘Live’ has been super successful on Kelly’s watch.
Adding a 3rd hour to ‘GMA’ is the logical next move, since Strahan has established himself in the 9 AM time slot.
https://youtu.be/9aa0RTLOYCA
