Kelly Ripa Teases Her Future on ‘Live’ Ahead of 25th Anniversary: Won’t Work ‘For the Rest of My Life’

Kelly Ripa has spent over 20 years cohosting ABC’s Live, but she’s not sure how many more years she’ll stay on the series.

Ripa will celebrate her 25th anniversary on the daytime talk show on Friday, February 20. Ahead of the episode, Ripa hinted at what her role on the “franchise” series will look like down the line. “I believe this show will continue on for as long as linear television exists,” she told Decider in an interview published on Thursday, February 19. “I believe that there are too many talented people out there that really deserve the opportunity to find their own audience and grow the audience the way they see fit.”

Ripa went on to reveal, “I don’t intend to work for the rest of my life. I really do not. Contrary to what everyone around here thinks!” She added, “I don’t intend on working for the rest of my life. But I think we’ll all make that decision when the time comes. I think there’s a way to sort of get new people on board and have them test cohosts and get the audience used to other people. I think it’s important. I love this show too much to see it sort of ever end with us.”

Live began as The Morning Show with Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey, but relaunched as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1998. Ripa took over for Kathie Lee Gifford as Philbin’s cohost in 2001 and has remained on the show ever since. Following Philbin’s exit in 2011, Ripa went on to cohost the show with Michael Strahan from 2012 to 2016 and Ryan Seacrest from 2017 to 2023.

Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, replaced Seacrest in 2023, and the show was retitled to Live With Kelly and Mark.

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Ripa told the outlet she was a fan of Live long before she joined the show. “I found it unique as a viewer. I really thought it was very funny, very irreverent, there was nothing else on TV like it,” she said, adding that her experience on the show has been just as “unique.”

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“I’ve been able to work full-time professionally, and yet also raise a family, which is very different from most entertainers in this business,” she shared. “If you have a family, you’re often having to take your kids out of school and move across the country, or move depending on what series you’re working on, anywhere… and I was able to raise my kids in the same place, in the same town, going to the same school, all of their lives. That really appealed to me.” (Ripa and Consuelos share three kids — Michael, Lola, and Joaquin.)

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As for why she thinks Live has remained a daytime TV staple over the years? “I think it’s just that we cover the issues that people have in their own homes in various stages of their lives,” she told the outlet. “We’re very irreverent. We cover the news, but we cover the absurdity of the news. We cover the absurd.”

She continued, “Our job when we come on the air, we are fully cognizant that the viewers at home have had five hours of news programming. So we try to bring them a lighter, less anxiety-inducing side of what the headlines have to offer.”

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