Episodes of Live with Kelly and Ryan are going to be a little bit different this week, with someone we’re not used to sitting behind the table.
On Monday, the morning show’s official Instagram page shared a behind-the-scenes video prior to the start of the show. This video was made to introduce the guest co-host for this week, showing Kelly Ripa making her way to the stage with someone other than her usual partner-in-crime, Ryan Seacrest .
This time around, the 50-year-old actress was joined by her longtime friend and fellow host, Andy Cohen . In the clip, the Bravo star can be seen smiling as he leaves his dressing room, filling in for the American Idol host on today and tomorrow’s show.
While a lot of fans were unaware of the switch, Cohen’s guest appearance shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. The 52-year-old shared an Instagram Story of himself heading to the studio early Monday morning, writing, “On my way to co-host with @KellyRipa. See you on TV! (Tomorrow too!).”
He went on to post about the opportunity on his own Instagram page, uploading a picture of him alongside Kelly and her husband, Mark Consuelos .
“Having a ball co-hosting with @kellyripa this morning. (Tomorrow too!)” he wrote under the photo. “And Mark’s here too!!”
As of now, nobody has revealed why Ryan Seacrest was absent from today’s episode of the show, or why Andy is also set to take over for him tomorrow. The host did share a picture following Monday’s show, though, which reveals him on what looks to be some sort of television or movie set.
“Working hard or hardly working?” he asked his followers under a photo of him smiling at his phone.
As for Live with Kelly and Ryan, this is the second time this month that the show has had a guest co-host fill in for one of their stars. A couple weeks back, on December 3, Tamron Hall sat in for Kelly Ripa as a guest host for one special episode.
Monday’s show marked the third time in just a few months that Seacrest has been absent. He missed two tapings in September after getting sick, revealing at the time that he was experiencing a sore throat.
In October, Seacrest missed tapings again after he developed a mild cough. Because of increased safety precautions amid the pandemic, Seacrest could not return to the show until the results of his COVID-19 test came back negative--which happened just two days later.
