ABC staffers are bracing for a morning present meltdown as former “Live!” co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan will quickly be compelled again underneath the identical roof after a bitter break up almost a decade in the past, The Submit has discovered.
The icy ex-colleagues shall be subjected to painful proximity when ABC uproots “Good Morning America,” which Strahan joined in 2016, from its Occasions Sq. studio and strikes it into the community’s new digs in downtown Manhattan in June.
That’s after ABC moved “Live with Kelly and Mark,” which Ripa co-hosts together with her husband Mark Consuelos, earlier this yr to the brand new facility on Hudson Sq. from the community’s longtime headquarters on the Higher West Facet.
Based on a supply with information, “GMA’s” new set shall be simply steps away from Ripa’s. The brand new studios, each positioned on the basement stage of the brand new Hudson Sq. headquarters, share a hallway and elevator — making the possibilities of a clumsy encounter a significant danger.
“They will be feet away from each other — he will be able to smell her perfume,” an ABC insider informed The Submit. “The staff is on tenterhooks. These two do not speak.”
The once-chummy duo famously fell out after Strahan abruptly bolted from “Live! With Kelly and Michael” to hitch the community’s crown jewel present, “Good Morning America” — with out giving Ripa a heads-up.
The Disney-owned community is already in damage-control mode, sources stated — weighing particular precautions round the truth that “Good Morning America” runs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and “Live with Kelly and Mark,” airs from 9 a.m to 10 a.m.
“Plans are in place to get Michael and Kelly in and out without crossing paths,” the supply stated. “The good news is they both tend to leave pretty quickly after taping. Still, if their schedules overlap, ABC will need a Plan B.”
An ABC spokesperson on Thursday insisted in an emailed assertion, “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.”
Ripa and Strahan aren’t the one staffers who could possibly be too cozy for consolation as Disney strikes all of its New York staff to the state-of-the-art, solar-powered Robert A. Iger Constructing at 7 Hudson Sq..
As reported by The Submit, staff at ABC’s “The View” are chafing over having to share a studio and dressing room with Tamron Corridor’s eponymous present. That’s regardless of fancy facilities like roof gardens, sunlit neighborhood areas and a luxurious theater.
“There are not a lot of desks. People just get drawers, and they are assigned lockers,” the insider provided. “The new office is very basic. There isn’t enough space or offices. There are no executive suites, just regular-sized offices.”
A community supply disputed the declare, saying: “There are plenty of desks and space to accommodate everyone. The building is gorgeous.”
The stakes are excessive as ABC brass scrambles to maintain the peace.
Strahan, together with co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, have helped “GMA” win the morning present race, however in latest months, it has traded for the highest spot with NBC’s “Today.” Within the first quarter of the yr, “GMA” trailed “Today” — which amassed over 2.7 million complete viewers — by roughly 7,000 viewers.
In the meantime, Ripa, who has continued to helm “Live!” with co-host Ryan Seacrest and now Consuelos, is first in its time slot with a mean of over 2.3 million complete viewers.
The rift between Ripa and Strahan famously got here to a head when Ripa was blindsided by the information that Strahan can be moved to the community’s marquee present, “GMA” with none heads up from her co-host or ABC Information execs. She was informed of the change an hour earlier than it was publicly introduced.
In response, Ripa didn’t flip up for work for every week after Strahan’s promotion, prompting then-ABC Information president Ben Sherwood to apologize to her in order that she would return.
A supply near Strahan insisted that he has “no bad blood” in the direction of Ripa immediately, including that he has “moved on” and “isn’t losing sleep over it.” Nonetheless, insiders say the place there’s smoke, there’s hearth.
They pointed to Ripa’s explosive interview in Selection two years in the past, by which she griped that when Regis Philbin left the present in 2011, she anticipated to get greater workplace. However larger ups stated they had been saving an even bigger workplace for Strahan, whereas she obtained an workplace that was the dimensions of a “broom closet.”
“I just moved my things. I forced my way into the office because I couldn’t understand how I would still be in the janitor’s closet and somebody new would come in and get the office,” she stated.
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That was after Strahan broke his silence on the kerfuffle in 2019, telling “Time Magazine” and “People” that the 2 not communicate and that they aren’t mates. He informed “The New York Times” a yr later that he didn’t “hate” Ripa, including that he revered Ripa for the way “good she is at her job.”
However the former NFL participant did say that there have been “certain things that were going on behind the scenes” that made him notice “it was time to go.”
Finally, he stated he felt like a “sidekick” relatively than a “partner.”
