When Mark Consuelos quietly announced his six-month leave, it landed less like TV gossip and more like a collective gut check. Sitting beside Kelly Ripa, his wife and co-host, he framed the break not as an exit, but as an act of protection — for his family, his health, and the life they’ve built beyond the cameras. The emotion in the room, and across social feeds, came from recognizing how rare it is to see someone step back before they break.
Kelly staying on with rotating co-hosts keeps the show’s heartbeat going, but the message underneath is what lingers: even in an industry built on nonstop visibility, it’s okay to stop. Viewers rallied around that honesty, turning hashtags into a kind of public embrace. This isn’t a farewell tour; it’s a pause with intention, a reminder that careers can wait, but well-being and the people you love cannot.
Kelly Ripa is losing her Live With Kelly and Michael co-host Michael Strahan this summer. But will she also lose her show’s prime 9 a.m. time slot at some point as well?
ABC News executives long have coveted a third hour for their morning franchise. And with profit margins in the syndication arena on the wane, many industry sources view ABC’s move Tuesday to bring Strahan to Good Morning America full-time this fall as the beginning of a bigger play to expand GMA.
“We are committed to ‘Live…’, its fantastic production team, and to Kelly Ripa. We believe the show has a great future. End of story,” said a Disney-ABC Television spokesperson in a statement to THR.
To be sure, the immediate priority for ABC News executives is to stanch GMA‘s recent ratings bleed. And executives believe the popular Strahan can improve the chemistry among the show’s talent.
“The success of GMA is the No.1 priority of ABC News because it subsidizes the entire news division,” says an ABC News veteran who asked not to be named. But to that end, a source at GMA predicts a third hour could bring in an additional $25 million to $50 million in revenue each year while adding little additional cost to the show’s operating budget. ABC News already has brought in daytime veteran Hilary Estey McLoughlin to consult on The View, which was put into the news division’s portfolio in 2014. The former head of Telepictures Productions, McLoughlin has copious experience in daytime including on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Tyra Banks Show and Anderson Cooper’s daytime effort. She could be useful in strategizing a third hour of GMA.