All My Children star Kelly Ripa made the choice the TV industry had been puzzled over for months.
The Search is Over!
And the co-host is…Ryan Seacrest! Fans of Live! With Kelly can now see the AMC star (Hayley) paired with the affable ex-American Idol host, Seacrest. The announcement, made Monday, May 1st, capped off an almost yearlong search for a person to occupy the show’s co-host chair after much intense speculation as to who would get the coveted position.
Related: Susan Lucci on Agnes Nixon’s biography.
A Long and Winding Road
The hunt for a co-host commenced after Ripa’s former sidekick, ex-New York Giants player Michael Strahan jumped ship to ABC’s Good Morning America. Since then, some folks proposed to fill the empty Live! chair have been Jerry O’Connell, Fred Savage, and Andy Cohen, to name a few. The show’s audience erupted into wild cheers upon seeing Ripa and Seacrest stroll out, hand in hand, onto the stage. Seacrest will be bicoastal, shuttling between New York and his Los Angeles base. He is one busy guy–in addition to his new co-hosting duties, he is also a producer, a radio show host, and executive producer of the annual Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
Also: Hope for AMC and OLTL back on our screens.
Daytime to Primetime and Back Again
New Jersey native Ripa played her AMC role for 12 years, during which time she assumed co-hosting duties on Live! with then-host Regis Philbin, replacing Kathie Lee Gifford. Ripa also appeared on the sitcom, Hope and Faith, opposite ex-Murphy Brown star Faith Ford (Muffy, One Life to Live; ex-Julia, Another World) from 2003-2006. She is married to her onetime AMC co-star and occasional past Live! co-host, Mark Consuelos (Mateo Santos). They have three children, and celebrated their 21st anniversary on the day of the Seacrest reveal! So May 1st will be a memorable date for Ripa indeed.
We at Soap Cities wish Ripa and Seacrest continued success!
Give us your input in the comment section below. Check back with Soap Cities for more AMC/OLTL news, updates, fun, and more! Follow us on Twitter at @soapcities, on Instagram at @soapcities, and come chat with us in our Facebook group. “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will one day be back on-screen—never doubt!
