Kelly Ripa’s full profile in People Magazine is much more chatty and confessional than I was expecting. I thought we would get a fluffy piece confirming the stories that we’ve heard so far about Michael Strahan’s exit and giving some future plans for the next co-host. Instead she really talked to them, they seem to have printed her thoughts in full, and she gave a lot of great quotes.
In Kelly’s interview, she tries to make the point that she wasn’t upset just for herself when she learned at the last minute that Michael was leaving, she was also concerned for all the other people on staff who learned at the same time as she did and also felt blindsided. That sounded like she was trying to bolster her position, which was perfectly valid in my opinion without adding in the staff. Plus she explained that she’s shown up for work for fifteen years consistently and wanted to take some time to process the news, particularly because she’s on live television and didn’t want to say the wrong thing. It was all well explained and totally understandable. I’m cutting a lot out of Kelly’s interview so please pick up People’s print/digital edition to read more. She did say nice things about Michael and she also sounded grateful for her job.
On her daughter Lola
[She is] deeply committed to being 14, and all the drama that goes with that. She truly seems to need a level of drama to function. She requires it for forward momentum.
On why she took the extra days off
I think what people need to understand about the entire situation is that I didn’t just not show up. I said, in the room [as they told her that Strahan was leaving], ‘I am going to take the day off.’ I needed to actually sit and gather information. I needed to make sure I said the appropriate things on TV and didn’t just come out and say whatever.
In all these years I’ve never missed a day of work except for my one ‘sick day’ – which made headlines. If I worked at a sandwich shop, no one would have known.
On how other staff members were shafted too
Our show is one based on chemistry and camaraderie and trust. All those things don’t just happen; it doesn’t fall out of the sky. It takes a lot of work, and it takes a group discussion. When you don’t feel like you’re part of the group responsible for making decisions about that, it makes not just me feel bad, it makes all of us feel bad.
People think this is a two person show. It’s not. There are a lot of people at the show who count on their jobs. There are people there who I have known for 15 years, and we are very close. We are like brothers and sisters, and it’s not just about me. In that moment there were people looking at me saying, ‘Tell us this is going to be okay. Are we going to be okay?’
Why she and the staff decided to make Michael’s last day May 13 instead of September
Well, like I said, nobody consulted us initially. What we’ve explained to them is, well, if you had asked us, we would have told you, ‘Guys, we need to start looking, because we have summer hiatus, we have vacation time. We need to find people. If we’re going to have this list narrowed down at least to a manageable size by the fall, we need to start now.
[From People Magazine, print edition]
I know it’s not relevant but I wanted to include what Kelly said about her daughter because I think it’s unfair of her to talk negatively about Lola to the press. On the show she mocked Lola for being upset that no one gave her a heads up that Nick Jonas was dropping by the house to use the bathroom before the Met gala. The girl was embarrassed that she didn’t have time to freshen up before meeting one of her idols, it’s understandable. It’s hard being a mom but it’s also hard being a teenager, and she shouldn’t talk smack about her daughter.
Anyway again Kelly makes sense here. I don’t think she did anything wrong and she made it clear that the way producers dealt with her was not acceptable. It sounds like she has has no experience getting fired from a job or dealing with layoffs at all, but she didn’t handle it poorly. I do think it was mostly Kelly’s decision to oust Michael sooner rather than later, but her reasoning, that they need more time for the search, is sound. The way she was told at the last minute was wrong and obviously she wasn’t the only one affected. I’m not saying I particularly care at this point, just that I get it.
Photos courtesy of People Mag, Getty.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbXBlZ4Vye8qeo6Wxj6e2sa2%2BmpumoaSorLW0wK2WrKCVlK6vsL6tn56XnJ7DpqvSrZifno%2BZsqS1w56bmKyflLC2wL6moJygkZq5tKvSrZiyl6OdvLPAjg%3D%3D