Breaking: Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan reunite, ‘Live! With Kelly and Michael’ is coming back
Nearly a decade has passed since Michael Strahan left his post alongside Kelly Ripa on Live! With Kelly and Michael for the apparently greener pastures of Good Morning America. Now, the former co-stars will be filming in the same building again — and network insiders are reportedly preparing for potential conflict.
As viewers know, Ripa’s current show, Live With Kelly and Mark, started filming in a new location earlier this month. As Good Morning America prepares to follow suit and move to the same Hudson Yards facility from its current Times Square studio, some are concerned about what could happen if Ripa and Strahan run into each other.
“They will be feet away from each other — he will be able to smell her perfume,” an ABC insider told The New York Post. “The staff is on tenterhooks. These two do not speak.”
“Plans are in place to get Michael and Kelly in and out without crossing paths,” the source continued. “The good news is they both tend to leave pretty quickly after taping. Still, if their schedules overlap, ABC will need a Plan B.”
While GMA airs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., Live With Kelly and Mark runs from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
An official ABC spokesperson denied there was any cause for concern.
“There is absolutely no truth to this – both Kelly and Michael are consummate professionals and are excited to continue to co-host their top-rated shows in our new state of the art studios,” the rep said in an emailed statement to the NYP.
Strahan admitted his departure from Live was “mishandled” in a 2020 interview with The New York Times.
“It was treated as if I was the guy who walked in and said, ‘I’m leaving.’ That part was totally misconstrued, mishandled in every way,” he said. “People who should have handled it better have all apologized, but a lot of the damage had already been done. For me, it was like: Move on. Success is the best thing. Just keep on moving.”
However, he insisted had nothing but respect for Ripa.
“If people think, ‘Oh, he hates her’ – I don’t hate her. I do respect her for what she can do at her job. I cannot say enough about how good she is at her job,” he said.
