Kelly Ripa to Return to ‘Live,’ Ending a Standoff With ABC
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Version 0 of 1. Kelly Ripa’s standoff against ABC will end next week. Ms. Ripa informed the staff of her morning show, “Live With Kelly and Michael,” on Friday night that she would return Tuesday, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. Addressing the “Live” staff, she said: “(Sorry for this late Friday night email). I wanted to thank you all for giving me the time to process this new information. Your kindness, support, and love has overwhelmed me. We are a family and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday morning. Love, Kelly.” Ms. Ripa refused to appear on her show twice this week after the network announced that Michael Strahan would leave “Live” for “Good Morning America” in September. A person who spoke to Ms. Ripa said she had felt blindsided since she was given almost no notice about the move. She also felt that network executives were slighting her show in favor of “Good Morning America.” It turned into an enormous headache for ABC, as it dealt with the fallout of having angered one of its stars. Ana Gasteyer replaced Ms. Ripa on Wednesday and Erin Andrews replaced Ms. Ripa each of the last two days; both of those episodes were taped Thursday. Mr. Strahan began appearing on “Good Morning America” two years ago, and Ms. Ripa expressed reservations at the time that his role on that show would be a distraction from his duties on “Live.” She was told that his role would be temporary. Of interest for Tuesday’s broadcast — and for future weeks — will be how Ms. Ripa and Mr. Strahan address the controversy, and whether their on-air relationship will be affected. “Live” has done well in the 9 a.m. time slot while “Good Morning America” has had declines in both its overall viewership and in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic important to advertisers. Still, “Good Morning America” remains the most-viewed morning show — it trails “Today” in the demographic — and it is an enormous profit center for ABC News. Ms. Ripa will be off on Monday; she had previously scheduled a long weekend to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary. |