ABC staffers bracing for meltdown with rivals Michael Strahan, Kelly Ripa forced back under same roof: sources
ABC staffers are bracing for a morning show meltdown as former “Live!” co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan will soon be forced back under the same roof after a bitter split nearly a decade ago, The Post has learned.
The icy ex-colleagues will be subjected to painful proximity when ABC uproots “Good Morning America,” which Strahan joined in 2016, from its Times Square studio and moves it into the network’s new digs in downtown Manhattan in June.
That’s after ABC moved “Live with Kelly and Mark,” which Ripa co-hosts with her husband, Mark Consuelos, earlier this year to the new facility on Hudson Square from the network’s longtime headquarters on the Upper West Side.
According to a source with knowledge, “GMA’s” new set will be just steps away from Ripa’s. The new studios, both located on the basement level of the new Hudson Square headquarters, share a hallway and elevator — making the chances of an awkward encounter a major risk.
“They will be feet away from each other — he will be able to smell her perfume,” an ABC insider told The Post. “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 join the network’s crown jewel show, “Good Morning America” — without giving Ripa a heads-up.
The Disney-owned network is already in damage control mode, sources said — weighing special precautions around the fact 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 source said. “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 statement, “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 only staffers who could be too cozy for comfort as Disney moves all of its New York employees to the state-of-the-art, solar-powered Robert A. Iger Building at 7 Hudson Square.
As reported by The Post, employees at ABC’s “The View” are chafing over having to share a studio and dressing room with Tamron Hall’s eponymous show. That’s despite fancy amenities like roof gardens, sunlit community spaces and a sumptuous theater.
“There are not a lot of desks. People just get drawers, and they are assigned lockers,” the insider offered. “The new office is very basic. There isn’t enough space or offices. There are no executive suites, just regular-sized offices.”
A network source disputed the claim, saying: “There are plenty of desks and space to accommodate everyone. The building is gorgeous.”
The stakes are high as ABC brass scrambles to keep the peace.
Strahan, along with co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, has helped “GMA” win the morning show race, but in recent months, it has traded for the top spot with NBC’s “Today.” In the first quarter of the year, “GMA” trailed “Today” — which amassed over 2.7 million total viewers — by roughly 7,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, Ripa, who has continued to helm “Live!” with co-host Ryan Seacrest and now Consuelos, is first in its time slot with an average of over 2.3 million total viewers.
The rift between Ripa and Strahan famously arose when Ripa was blindsided by the news that Strahan would be moved to the network’s marquee show, “GMA,” without any heads-up from her co-host or ABC News execs. She was told of the change an hour before it was publicly announced.?
In response, Ripa didn’t turn up for work for a week after Strahan’s promotion, prompting then-ABC News president Ben Sherwood to apologize to her so that she would return.
A source close to Strahan insisted that he has “no bad blood” toward Ripa today, adding that he has “moved on” and “isn’t losing sleep over it.” Still, insiders say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
They pointed to Ripa’s explosive interview in Variety two years ago, in which she griped that when Regis Philbin left the show in 2011, she expected to get a bigger office. But higher-ups said they were saving a bigger office for Strahan, while she got an office that was the size 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 said.
“Live!” Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
That was after Strahan broke his silence on the kerfuffle in 2019, telling Time magazine and People?that the two no longer speak and aren’t friends. He told the New York Times a year later that he didn’t “hate” Ripa, adding that he respected her for how “good she is at her job.”
But the former NFL player did say there were “certain things that were going on behind the scenes” that made him realize “it was time to go.”
Ultimately, he said, he felt like a “sidekick” rather than a “partner.”
A source close to Ripa pushed back on any lingering bad blood between the morning show hosts.
“Apparently some petty person is trying to relive the spring of 2016 by bringing this up again, even though there has not been a single conflict between them in the nine years since,” the person said.
