Thoughts about Ryan Seacrest Joining Kelly Ripa as the Co-Host of “Live”
Get ready for Live with Kelly and Ryan. Yes, as in Ryan Seacrest.
Kelly Ripa has settled on Seacrest as the new permanent co-host of the show. The move comes nearly a year after Ripa’s former co-host, Michael Strahan, left for an anchor slot on ABC’s Good Morning America. In addition to co-hosting, Seacrest will become an executive producer on the long-running daytime series. The news was announced on air Monday.
Ripa opened the show by calling Monday a “very good day.”
“Today, the next chapter, of the Live story is about to be written,” she announced. “Today, my new co-host will officially be joining me on Live and today is a very good day.” She then thanked all the rotating co-hosts who appeared on her show this past year, as well as the fans for their patience. “Part of what makes this show so special is through helping us out, [the guest hosts] all became family and they are a part of the Live family forever.”
But if I am being honest, I kind of hate this move.
I grew up watching “Live.” As a kid, I would wake up early enough in the summer to make sure I caught the entire show when it aired at 9 A.M.; in a weird way it became must-see television. That’s how much I loved it. As I grew older, Ripa undoubtedly became my favorite part. I was able to appreciate the countless jokes she cracked during host chat and I always enjoyed when she would tell stories about the antics her kids got into during the previous day. I’ve stuck with her through the many changes “Live” has made over the years, but this one is going to take a long time to come around to.
On the one hand, the move to hire Seacrest makes sense. He is a master of live TV; he’s a terrific interviewer with tens of thousands of hours of live broadcasting experience. So while there is no doubt Seacrest has a certain charm and charisma, for me personally he is too big of a television personality to enjoy every morning, five days a week. I fear because he’s such a big name in the industry his presence will soon take over and become more important than Ripa’s.
I would not be okay with that. I have always believed Ripa is funny and talented enough to carry the show on her own; she has done it for the past year and she did it between Strahan’s announcement and Regis Philbin’s exit in 2012.
With that being said, even though “Live” is moving onto its next chapter, I will always think of it as Kelly’s show. Let’s just hope Seacrest doesn’t go and mess that up.