ABC Reportedly Desperately Wanted To Kick Ryan Seacrest Out of Kelly Ripa’s ‘Live’ as Viewers ‘Went Wild’ Whenever Mark Consuelos Came in as Guest Co-Host
It is now known all too well that Ryan Seacrest would soon be leaving Live with Kelly and Ryan after a six-year run on the daytime talk show. However, ABC’s executives don’t seem to have a frown on their forehead as they already had the perfect replacement in their mind, and it was none other than Kelly Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos. It was announced a few days ago that Seacrest is going to hang around for only a few days till spring until he quits for good, and after his departure, the show will be rechristened as Live with Kelly and Mark.
ABC executives welcomed Ryan Seacrest’s departure from Live
While Ryan Seacrest is leaving Live to pursue several other career opportunities, ABC Live executives are also making the most of this opportunity to replace Seacrest. While fans of the 48-year-old might be a little upset with his departure, the execs sure aren’t. In fact, it might not be an exaggeration to say that it is even a welcome change. Reason being that his replacement has already proven his mettle when it comes to bringing in high ratings and social media engagement.
The American Idol host has often been away from his cohosting gig at Live to work on his varying projects, and over the years, Mark Consuelos became a regular when it came to filling in for Seacrest beside his wife, Kelly Ripa. And according to an insider, the audience always had a positive response to Consuelos cohosting the talk show.
Mark Consuelos brought in mind-blowing spikes in Live ratings
Appearing on the show over 100 times, the Riverdale actor easily became an audience favorite. A source shared what happened whenever Consuelos filled in,
“The ratings were so strong and the engagement on social media went up significantly whenever he was on with Kelly.”
The insider further shared statistical proof of the fact. Consuelos had filled in for Seacrest on January 29 and that week saw engagement on the show’s Twitter handle go up by 243%.
The insider concludingly said,
“It was almost six years, which was a great run for Ryan. With Ryan’s Idol stuff coming up and with Mark co-hosting more anyway, it was a natural opportunity for this change to happen. It was more and more obvious to ABC how perfect this is for the future of Live.”
Meanwhile, Seacrest has got several hosting jobs lined up for him, American Idol being the foremost of them. He has also got his own national radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest. He owns a production company as well named Ryan Seacrest Productions in addition to his charity, Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF).
Source: The U.S. Sun
