“It was a tough, tough decision”: Kelly Ripa Absolutely Overtakes ‘Live’, Replaces Ryan Seacrest With Husband Mark Consuelos in Shocking Move
Since Ryan Seacrest began his journey as a co-host with Kelly Ripa on ABC’s Live, he has been loved by viewers. Unfortunately, his run has come to an end as Seacrest announced recently. According to him, it was a decision he arrived with his co-host. Although Ripa’s husband filled in for the radio host several times on the show, he will be replacing him permanently this time as shared by the All My Children alum. Seacrest shared his plans for the future and even mentioned that he might make a guest appearance on the show someday. However, for now, fans would not be seeing one of their favorite Live co-hosts. As for the replacement, it was Ripa who had the big say being one of the longest-running co-hosts of the talk show.
Kelly Ripa has Seemingly Taken Total Control Over Her Talk Show
Some hours ago, Ryan Seacrest announced his departure from ABC’s Live as a co-host to Kelly Ripa. Unfortunately for his fans, Seacrest has decided to move on from the show after 6 years. He did mention his plans about taking up hosting on American Idol later. So he won’t be gone for long from the screen but this was his last season on Live with Kelly and Ryan. Apart from that, the radio host expressed his sentiment about his decision saying,
“This is something that [Kelly] and I have been talking about for a long time, and it was a tough, tough decision.”
With his exit, however, there arises the need for a new co-host. And seemingly this decision was finalized by Ripa for the most part. Grabbing the opportunity, she decided that her husband Mark Consuelos was the best replacement at the moment. She explained to her viewers that the “only person capable of holding Seacrest’s torch” was Consuelos. He has made several appearances on the show to fill in on some days for Seacrest. However, this time Consuelos has come to stay.
Live Co-Hosts History
At the very beginning, the co-hosts that worked together to start the talk show in 1988 were the late Regis Philbin with Kathie Lee Gifford. And after Gifford’s exit, Kelly Ripa took up the role of Live’s permanent co-host. Although the two had immaculate chemistry on screen, later it was reported that the two hardly interacted much outside the show. And unlike his chemistry with Gifford, Philbin and Ripa never clicked backstage.
So, in 2011 Philbin decided to quit his role as co-host on the show. Following that the next year, former football player Michael Strahan came in to take the spot.
But unfortunately, he too exited after 4 years. Reportedly he had no say in the decision. Even in his case, he rarely got to interact with Ripa off-screen. And lastly, Ryan Seacrest was chosen to take up the role alongside Ripa. But he also recently announced his departure from the show. Seacrest joined back in 2017.
Source: Page Six
