ABC Television
On Friday, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest filmed the final episode of “Live with Kelly and Ryan”!
“Extra” spoke with Kelly and Ryan, who reflected on how emotional the day was, and who also spoke about Kelly’s husband Mark Consuelos taking over.
In February, Ryan announced that he was leaving the show.
Ryan shared, “This was more emotional than I expected but I expected to be emotional. When you love someone so much that you work with and that you have been a friend with for over two decades, it is real. It is authentic and it is significantly special.”
While they had been emotionally prepared for today, Kelly said, “Just doing the show today and dialing in backstage with each other before our names were called, just felt like not possible, like this is not really happening.”
The two also admitted that the final walkout was “awful.” Kelly elaborated, “I turned to him and I said, ‘This sucks,’ because it felt, like, very painful.”
“Once I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to keep it together, then he started getting emotional and I was like, ‘Stop it!’ Kelly added. “So that’s what we do.”
Ryan also opened up on what his first Monday will look like without the show. He noted that he would hit snooze on his alarm, tape “Live with Kelly and Mark,” and enjoy a green smoothie.
Seacrest didn’t have any advice to offer Consuelos, saying, “Mark Consuelos knows Kelly, believe it or not, better than I do… I think he’s going to be absolutely seamless in this transition.”
Kelly compared Ryan with Mark, saying, “They are so similar in the way they carry themselves, in their thoughtfulness, in their kindness. They’re both brilliantly funny and just gentlemen… I feel very fortunate to have both of them, you know. One out, one in.”