Ripa keeps it real
Kelly Ripa is perpetually joking, laughing, hamming it up on Disney-ABC’s Live with Kelly, the second-most-watched daytime talk show on television.
For the past 16 years — including a decade alongside original star Regis Philbin — she has bantered with co-hosts and celebrity guests with a magnetic spontaneity that borders on an art form.
So it was a surprise last spring when co-host of four years, former NFL star Michael Strahan, left to join Good Morning America.
Caught off-guard, Ripa stayed off the air for a few days — an absence that blew up into a national story.
“Everybody at a certain point in their career, or even in their lives, has felt left out of major decisions and major conversations,” Ripa, 46, said in an interview. “I think that was the reason that people really responded to it the way they did — because it’s so much a part of everybody’s life at some point.”
Ripa returned to Live with a candid live monologue about her feelings on the situation. After many months, the announcement came on May 1, that Ryan Seacrest will become permanent co-host.
Last year’s drama created a new intrigue around a star who has enjoyed a trajectory like few others.
To understand Ripa’s enduring career and reported $17 million salary, you must appreciate the craft of talking — effortlessly, entertainingly, without a script, on live television, every day of your life.
“We can sit around drinking coffee and talk about what we did yesterday with friends. (But) when compelled to do that in front of a camera and make it seem as natural? ... That’s a really difficult skill,” said Robert J. Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “There are very few people who can do it at all and practically no one that does it as well as Kelly Ripa.”
It’s a blend of confidence and improv skills, quick wit and vulnerability — and to muster all that in a persona that remains relatable to a wide audience can be a tough line to walk for a wealthy and famous TV star.
If she manages to walk that line, it’s because, as friends and colleagues insist, Ripa is who she appears to be on TV.
In reality, she is similarly warm and chatty, with something of a compulsion to put the person next to her at ease.
“When I thought back to all the times we worked together,” said Seacrest, explaining why he joined the show, “I could never remember feeling anything but happy.”
Make no mistake: Being Live with Kelly is work, even if it seems effortless.
“It is a dialed-up version of your personality,” said Ripa. “I am clearly not laughing and yukking it up all day long. When I go to parentteacher conferences, I act like a human being. I’m not like, ‘Hey, ring-a-ding-ding!’”
Charisma is an inherent quality; it’s also a skill honed over time.
In high school, Ripa busted moves on a cheesy syndicated music show, Dance Party USA, then dabbled at community college while taking the Greyhound to New York City for auditions. At 19, she landed an audition for ABC’s long-running All My Children. After one screen test, the director approached to ask her a question; Ripa replied, “Well, which answer will get me the job?”
She had no idea the cameras were still rolling. Producers laughed — that banter won her the job.
A frequent guest on Live With Regis and Kathie Lee, Ripa was brought in to audition as Kathie Lee Gifford’s replacement. She appeared live alongside psychic Char Margolis, who delivered a prediction: Ripa’s late grandmother would one day watch over her “when this new baby comes.” Ripa looked stunned.
“You’re not pregnant yet, are you?” Margolis asked. Ripa laughed nervously. Philbin looked confused. Finally, Ripa exclaimed, “I haven’t told my boss yet!”
The audience gasped. Sure enough, Ripa sheepishly confirmed, she was pregnant with her second child. The charming exchange sealed the deal. In February 2001, Disney-ABC officially announced Ripa as Philbin’s new co-host.
“That television screen is a truth detector. You can tell who’s real and who’s not,” said friend Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor and frequent Live guest host. “Kelly’s honesty comes through that little piece of glass into people’s homes ... It’s not even like you feel like you have a relationship with her. You do have a relationship with her.”
It’s an intimacy with the audience that explains the reaction to the Strahan shakeup last April. Reports emerged that Ripa was staying home intentionally because she felt blindsided by his departure.
There were detractors who thought Ripa was throwing a diva tantrum.
“That’s the thing that I think is funny, when people are like: ‘You have a cushy job. You couldn’t possibly have any problems.’ Trust me, they don’t take your humanity away just because you work on TV,” Ripa said.
Ripa, now an executive producer with a multi-year contract, says she can’t see herself anywhere else.
“There are very few people as fortunate as I am in terms of their job. It’s allowed me to be creative outside of this building. It’s allowed me to be an entrepreneur in a way that I never dreamt possible for myself,” Ripa said.
Trust me, they don’t take your humanity away just because you work on TV.