ABC staffers are bracing for a morning present meltdown as former “Stay!” co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan will quickly be pressured again beneath the identical roof after a bitter cut up practically a decade in the past, The Submit has discovered.
The icy ex-colleagues will likely 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 “Stay with Kelly and Mark,” which Ripa co-hosts together with her husband Mark Consuelos, earlier this 12 months to the brand new facility on Hudson Sq. from the community’s longtime headquarters on the Higher West Aspect.
In line with a supply with data, “GMA’s” new set will likely be simply steps away from Ripa’s. The brand new studios, each situated on the basement degree of the brand new Hudson Sq. headquarters, share a hallway and elevator — making the possibilities of an ungainly encounter a serious danger.
“They are going to be toes away from one another — he’ll be capable to odor her fragrance,” an ABC insider instructed The Submit. “The employees is on tenterhooks. These two don’t converse.”
The once-chummy duo famously fell out after Strahan abruptly bolted from “Stay! 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 “Stay with Kelly and Mark,” airs from 9 a.m to 10 a.m.
“Plans are in place to get Michael and Kelly out and in with out crossing paths,” the supply stated. “The excellent news is that they each have a tendency to depart fairly rapidly after taping. Nonetheless, if their schedules overlap, ABC will want a Plan B.”
An ABC spokesperson on Thursday insisted in an emailed assertion, “There may be completely no fact to this – each Kelly and Michael are consummate professionals and are excited to proceed to co-host their top-rated reveals in our new cutting-edge 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 workers to the state-of-the-art, solar-powered Robert A. Iger Constructing at 7 Hudson Sq..
As reported by The Submit, workers 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 usually not a number of desks. Folks simply get drawers, and they’re assigned lockers,” the insider provided. “The brand new workplace may be very primary. There isn’t sufficient area or places of work. There aren’t any government suites, simply regular-sized places of work.”
A community supply disputed the declare, saying: “There are many desks and area to accommodate everybody. The constructing is beautiful.”
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 current months, it has traded for the highest spot with NBC’s “At this time.” Within the first quarter of the 12 months, “GMA” trailed “At this time” — which amassed over 2.7 million whole viewers — by roughly 7,000 viewers.
In the meantime, Ripa, who has continued to helm “Stay!” with co-host Ryan Seacrest and now Consuelos, is first in its time slot with a mean of over 2.3 million whole viewers.
The rift between Ripa and Strahan famously got here to a head when Ripa was blindsided by the information that Strahan could be moved to the community’s marquee present, “GMA” with none heads up from her co-host or ABC Information execs. She was instructed 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 dangerous blood” in the direction of Ripa right now, including that he has “moved on” and “isn’t dropping 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, through which she griped that when Regis Philbin left the present in 2011, she anticipated to get larger workplace. However increased ups stated they have been saving an even bigger workplace for Strahan, whereas she obtained an workplace that was the dimensions of a “broom closet.”
“I simply moved my issues. I pressured my approach into the workplace as a result of I couldn’t perceive how I might nonetheless be within the janitor’s closet and any person new would are available in and get the workplace,” she stated.
“Stay!” Disney Normal Leisure Content material through Getty Pictures
That was after Strahan broke his silence on the kerfuffle in 2019, telling “Time Journal” and “Folks” that the 2 now not converse and that they aren’t buddies. He instructed “The New York Occasions” a 12 months later that he didn’t “hate” Ripa, including that he revered Ripa for a way “good she is at her job.”
However the former NFL participant did say that there have been “sure issues that have been occurring behind the scenes” that made him notice “it was time to go.”
Finally, he stated he felt like a “sidekick” quite than a “companion.”
A supply near Ripa pushed again on any lingering dangerous blood between the morning present hosts.:
“Apparently some petty particular person is attempting to relive the spring of 2016 by bringing this up once more, though there has not been a single battle between them within the 9 years since,” the particular person stated.
