Kelly Ripa Ryan Seacrest
Kelly Ripa has reportedly selected Ryan Seacrest as her new “Live” co-host. She is pictured at the Logo TV Fire Island Premiere Party in New York City on April 20, 2017. Seacrest is seen at the MOCA Gala honoring Jeff Koons in Los Angeles on April 29, 2017. Getty Images

It has been over a year since Michael Strahan left his co-hosting gig on “Live,” but according to reports, Kelly Ripa has finally made a decision on who would replace him on the program. Her new co-host is set to be none other than Ryan Seacrest.

According to a report from CNN, Ripa will announce that Seacrest is going to be her new co-host on Monday’s show, after a year which saw her utilizing a format of guest co-hosts ranging from Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Savage, and even her own husband, Mark Consuelos. She announced to fans via Twitter on Sunday that she was finally choosing a new cohost.

It appears the decision to hire Seacrest for the job comes from the competition that NBC will provide for their third hour of the “Today Show” come Fall, which will see a new show hosted by Megyn Kelly, after her decision to leave Fox News for the network. According to the report the new job won’t affect any of his other work commitments, which include hosting red carpet specials for NBC’s E! network, or his nationally syndicated radio shows for iHeartMedia. Seacrest was already a part of the ABC family as the host of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” each year.

However, despite his many credentials in the business (he got his start as the host of Fox’s “American idol”), many don’t seem very impressed with the pick on social media, as several Twitter users have reacted with disappointment at the news.

Seacrest is the third man to fill a co-host seat on the long-running daytime series since it was first introduced to the public in the 1980s. It gained major prominence as “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee,” featuring Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, until 2000, when Gifford left the show. She was replaced with Ripa in 2001. The show ran as “Live with Regis and Kelly” until Philbin’s retirement in 2011. Strahan took over the job in 2012 before announcing he was leaving the show in 2016 for a full-time on-air position with “Good Morning America.”

Prior to gaining recognition as the host of “Live!” Ripa was best known for her work in Daytime Soaps, particularly as Hayley Vaughan on ABC’s former soap, “All My Children.” She met Consuelos on that show.

Seacrest first became known when Fox debuted their talent show competition series “American Idol” in 2002. He served as the host of the show every season until it ended its run in 2016.

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