Why Kelly Ripa Allegedly Didn’t Want Ryan Seacrest As Her ‘Live’ Co-Host
Kelly Ripa confirmed on Live with Kelly on May 1 that Ryan Seacrest would be her new permanent co-host. However, it’s now been claimed that she wasn’t too happy about the decision to bring Seacrest on board.
According to a new report by Radar Online, Seacrest supposedly wasn’t Ripa’s first choice to replace Michael Strahan, despite the former American Idol host stepping in as a guest co-host while producers searched for Strahan’s replacement.
The site is alleging that Kelly was actually looking for a co-host who was a little less well-known than Ryan and was also hoping for someone she could “boss around” on the set.
Although Kelly and Ryan seemed pretty happy together as the cameras rolled on the first and second episodes of Live with Kelly and Ryan, an insider alleged that Seacrest was supposedly not her first choice and that the decision to hire the veteran host was “ultimately [ABC president] Ben Sherwood’s call,” not Ripa’s.
“[Ripa] preferred someone less well-known,” the source alleged of what Kelly was looking for in a new co-host. “She wanted someone that she could boss around, and that isn’t Ryan. He’s as big of a star as she is!”
Kelly and Ryan have not responded to the outlet’s allegations that Seacrest wasn’t Ripa’s first choice as a new co-host. However, if the claims are to be believed, Kelly may now have had a change of heart when it comes to Ryan, or at least she isn’t letting on that she would have preferred a different host sitting beside her every morning.
Ripa gushed about Seacrest after it was announced that he would be her new permanent co-host this week, telling reporters that she asked the Keeping Up with the Kardashians producer if he would join the show a decade ago.
“He’s a seamless broadcaster. There is nobody better,” Kelly Ripa told Entertainment Tonight of Ryan Seacrest during a press conference, despite recent claims she may not have been too thrilled with the decision to bring Seacrest on board.
“There is nobody that actually understands what 30 seconds of conversation actually means in time, in real time, like Ryan does,” Ripa continued, adding that Seacrest “makes everything easy” for her.
Ryan also gushed about hosting with Kelly during the post-show press conference, admitting that he and Ripa have great chemistry and have a “naturalness” when they’re sitting alongside each other. The former American Idol host has appeared multiple times as a guest co-host for the long-running morning talk show as the search continued for someone to sit in Michael’s seat on a permanent basis.
“There’s just a naturalness being next to each other that hopefully comes across,” Seacrest said of his relationship with Ripa. “When we’re hosting the show, I don’t know what she’s going to say but I kind of know when she’s going to say something.”
“I think you feel the same way,” Ryan then said, turning to Kelly.
Seacrest also confirmed that he wanted to be a part of Live ever since the idea of being a co-host was first put forward following Michal Strahan’s sudden and very dramatic departure a year ago, which caused a media frenzy and a pretty serious rift between himself and Ripa.
“When we had first talked about it, I think both of us certainly thought, ‘Wow, that would be a dream if we could figure it out,'” Ryan said of his reaction to the news that he was in the running to be Kelly’s new permanent co-host.
However, neither has responded to accusations Ripa would have preferred someone else by her side.
What do you think of reports alleging that Kelly Ripa supposedly wasn’t too happy to learn that Ryan Seacrest would be her new co-star on Live with Kelly and Ryan?
[Featured Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]
