Erin Andrews To Fill In On ‘Live’ As Kelly Ripa Skips Town For 20th Wedding Anniversary Trip With Mark Conseulos
Erin Andrews will co-host with Michael Strahan on Live With Michael and Kelly for the rest of this week, but it has nothing to do with any type of “boycott” from the hit ABC talk show by Kelly Ripa. Andrews, a longtime network alum, had been previously scheduled to fill in for Ripa, who had a pre-planned vacation from the long-running morning show.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Erin Andrews will guest co-host on Live on Thursday and Friday. While Thursday’s show will be live, Friday’s show had already been scheduled to pre-tape on Thursday with Andrews.
In addition to Erin Andrews, Pretty Little Liars star Shay Mitchell will fill in on Monday as Ripa goes on a previously scheduled 20th anniversary trip with her husband Mark Consuelos. People reported that Kelly had planned the anniversary trip to Turks and Caicos with her husband months ago, and her absence from Live had nothing to do with Strahan’s bombshell announcement that he’s quitting their morning talk show to move over to Good Morning America next fall. Ripa was reportedly blindsided by the news of her co-host’s new job, so there has been much speculation over her sudden absence from Live.
Erin Andrews is a great co-host for Live. Not only does she have plenty of ABC hosting experience as the co-host of Dancing With the Stars, but Erin is also a seasoned sports reporter and colleague of Strahan’s at Fox Sports. Erin Andrews has a natural chemistry with the Live star, and hopefully, Michael’s opening chats with her this week won’t seem as awkward as they did on Wednesday’s show when guest co-host Ana Gasteyer was the recipient of his farewell announcement instead of Ripa.
Kelly Ripa was reportedly informed of Strahan’s departure after the two hosts had finished Tuesday morning’s Live broadcast, and the media frenzy began within 30 minutes of her finding out he had been promoted to a GMA job. While the longtime morning show host took a last-minute vacation day on Wednesday, ABC tried to make the best of it by nabbing frequent fill-in host Gasteyer, but it seemed odd for the Saturday Night Live alum to be on the receiving end of Strahan’s announcement. Now that the awkward morning-after talk is out of the way, Michael won’t have to address it with Andrews and can move on to other topics until he reunites with his work wife next week.
Live producers are good at utilizing talent from their other shows when they’re in a pinch on Live. Gasteyer has a recurring role on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs as high schoolteacher Miss Cinoman while Erin Andrews recently started her 5th season as co-host alongside Tom Bergeron on Dancing With the Stars. Shay Mitchell’s show Pretty Little Liars airs on Freeform (formerly ABC Family), which is also owned by Disney/ABC.
Erin Andrews has guest hosted on Live several times in the past, most recently last month, when she talked about the Season 22 premiere of DWTS. The multi-tasking TV personality recently made headlines for settling her $55 million dollar civil lawsuit over the secret recording and release of a video showing her naked in a Nashville Marriott hotel room, and fellow ABC employee Jimmy Kimmel jokingly asked her if she would give him a million dollars when she was a guest on his late night show.
Take a look at the video below to see Erin Andrews’ chemistry with Strahan on Live With Michael and Kelly.
[Photo By Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For KCSports2015]
