‘Live! with Kelly and Michael’ to be without Kelly Ripa for days; Erin Andrews, Shay Mitchell to co-host

While in the fall “Live! with Kelly and Michael” is going to be down Michael Strahan, it appears that over the course of the next few days the show is going to be missing Kelly Ripa instead.

ABC has announced that Ripa had a previously-scheduled vacation on both Friday and Monday, and Erin Andrews will be hosting the show the two days alongside Strahan. Meanwhile, Shay Mitchell of “Pretty Little Liars” fame will be taking over for the Monday broadcast. This means, effectively, that Thursday’s show is one that was not previously planned for Ripa to miss, which further cements questions about her present relationship with Strahan.

Since Strahan’s exit was first made public on Tuesday, there have been a multitude of rumors suggesting that Kelly was blindsided by the move, and that she is intentionally missing some time because of it. There may be a little bit of shock in her decision, given that this was a show largely about their chemistry and their tandem-hosting duties. Maybe some of it has to do with him leaving this show for a separate gig at “Good Morning America,” and that seems almost (to use a football term) like a lateral move. Maybe it has better ratings, but you don’t get your name in the title and you also have to get up early in the morning.

Eventually, we’re sure that all of this will be sorted out, but it has created a much more dramatic landscape in the world of early-morning television than we really ever expected to see. That’s what is going to make the next several weeks fairly interesting to watch.

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