Michael Strahan leaves ‘Live! with Kelly and Michael’ in relatively quiet show
Michael Strahan is now done with “Live! with Kelly and Michael,” and in the process, it appears that one of his wishes came true: He had a chance to have an exit that was relatively low-key, and not full of emotional goodbye packages and the like. Kelly Ripa said some kind words about him, there were a few videos montages, and that was really it. She said that she looked forward to watching him on “Good Morning America,” which is going to be his home starting a little bit later this year.
If you did not hear that this was going to be his final show today in advance, there is a fairly simple reason for it in the end: The “Live!” franchise wants to have time to find the right co-host before the fall. In moving up the date they can look at new candidates, and also determine what the structure and format of the new show would be.
For those who wanted to see some of Michael’s own parting words in full, the folks over at TVLine were kind enough to have a transcript of some of what he had to say:
“I just want to say it’s very bittersweet for me and I just want to say thank you to everybody. It’s amazing: you come here and you guys let me into your homes for the last four years everyday. I didn’t know what to expect coming from sports to daytime television and you guys opened up your hearts to me and opened up your homes to me and it has been so overwhelming the response that we’ve had over the last four years that you guys have loved this show. It means the world that you give us an hour of your day, and what you don’t realize is we get more from that hour than you really do. We sit in front of a live audience who I always say during our commercial breaks that they’re co-hosts of the show; the energy that they bring really makes this show work, and it is not about myself, it’s not about [Kelly], it’s about everybody here. We have an incredible staff here, from the producers to the staff to the crew, they make sure we’re always prepared to come out here and put on a great show for you guys and I gotta say we love you, we appreciate you… and Kelly, you are the best. I love you, baby. I love you.”
To quote a great philosopher (or at least one in our mind), and now his watch has ended.
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