A day after Michael Strahan announced he was leaving “Live with Kelly and Michael” to join “Good Morning America” full-time, his co-host Kelly Ripa was a no-show for their ABC talk show on Wednesday.
Strahan instead co-hosted alongside Ana Gasteyer, and was forced to address his pending exit without his co-host of four years by his side. The former New York Giants star kicked off Wednesday’s show by saying, “Kelly’s off today,” before acknowledging, “I’ve been in the news lately.”
“I’ve worked with an incredible staff here and I’m always here, I’m always available to guest co-host if I get a call because I consider myself to be a part of this family forever,” he said after thanking fans for their viewership.
Ripa reportedly was blindsided by Strahan’s departure, with a network source telling Page Six that “The plan was for there to be more time between telling Kelly and the announcement. But the story leaked, the timeline got crunched.”
When asked to comment on Ripa’s absence, a “Live” spokesperson said simply, “Kelly had the day off today” and declined to comment further.
Strahan will leave “Live” over the summer and start as a regular co-anchor at “GMA” in September. He has appeared on the broadcast twice a week as a special correspondent since 2014.
As it did when Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin left, “Live” plans to conduct a search for a new co-host when the new season starts in the fall. Page Six reports that CNN host Anderson Cooper is an early front-runner for the gig.