By Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Daily News
Somewhere, Brian Dunkleman is just shaking his head.
Ryan Seacrest, whose brief co-hosting gig with Dunkleman ended with Seacrest as solo host of “American Idol” for the rest of its long run, is Kelly Ripa’s new on-air partner.
The fact that the news had leaked earlier Monday morning, through a report by CNN, didn’t change Ripa’s cold open, in which she appeared to be addressing someone off camera.
The host of “Live with Kelly,” now “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” had teased her 1.6 million Twitter followers Sunday, telling them to tune in Monday for a big announcement.
The South Jersey native first entered alone, thanking both the audience and the men and women who’d co-hosted with her since Michael Strahan left a year ago this month, following the announcement that he was going to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
After the first commercial break, she returned, hand in hand with Seacrest, who, next to Ripa, looked if not tall, at least taller. The way the two talked about it, it seemed as if the announcement might have been in the works for a while.
Ripa and he had been friends for years, and when they found out he’d be her co-host, “we were told to keep it a secret,” Seacrest said.
“In our house, we don’t call it a secret anymore. We call it a Seacrest,” joked Ripa, who said her three teenagers managed to keep the news quiet.
Ripa’s ability to appear, at least, to be totally open about her personal life has been a strength on a show that strives for intimacy with its audience. Monday, she noted, was also her 21st wedding anniversary, for which her actor husband, Mark Consuelos, was out of town, working.
Will Seacrest be the same? At one point, he joked that after he’d emailed friends that he had good news, their responses had been to assume that he was engaged, having a baby, or coming out of the closet.
“All those things are possible for you,” Ripa assured him. “This is a safe, safe place.”
Seacrest, ABC said, will continue to host and produce his Los Angeles morning drive-time radio show, “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” from a new iHeartRadio studio in the New York ABC7 building that houses “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
Seacrest told Ripa he’d be “frequent-flying,” returning to his Los Angeles home on weekends, and asked advice about being a New Yorker.
“Get to know your subway system,” she said, noting that there are days, such as when the president is in town, where the subway’s the only way to get places.
Seacrest will also continue his other gigs, hosting and producing E!’s “Live from the Red Carpet” shows and ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.”
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