The queen of the talk show, Oprah Winfrey, is now weighing in on all the drama surrounding "LIVE! With Kelly and Michael" after Kelly Ripa's co-host, Michael Strahan, announced he was leaving the show for "Good Morning America" earlier this week.
Winfrey was promoting her new show "Greenleaf" on Wednesday at the Tribeca Film Festival when she was asked about Ripa not hosting the Wednesday edition of "LIVE" after she was reportedly not told that Strahan would be leaving the show.
"Nobody should ever be blindsided," Winfrey said. "I don't know who's in charge, but somebody should've said, 'This is gonna happen.' You shouldn't have to read it in the paper. Ever."
"Blindsided is never good," she added.
On Tuesday, ABC announced that the former NFL star, who had been a hit as Ripa's co-host, will leave the show to join "GMA" full time after previously guest hosting the show two days a week. Strahan will exit "LIVE" toward the end of the summer and will start his new hosting position in September. While Ripa was reportedly "livid" about the news of Strahan's departure, she was not mad at him but at the way the situation was handled.
"She totally understands why he'd take the job ... it's a great job!" a source said. "But there is a way to go about things, with courtesy and respect and decency, and none of those things were done here."
Ripa has taken off the next couple of days from "LIVE" with Ana Gasteyer filling in for her on Wednesday, Erin Andrews filling in for her on Thursday and Friday, and "Pretty Little Liars" star Shay Mitchell co-hosting on Monday.
On Thursday's episode of "LIVE," Strahan said that Ripa and her family went to Turks and Caicos for a vacation, and he thanked her for all that she had done for him.
"I'm very thankful for her, to her, because I've learned so much from her. And [executive producer] Michael Gelman showed me the ropes," Strahan said. "I was so new to all of this, and if it weren't for her and it weren't for Michael Gelman and the staff there that really boosted me up and made me look a lot better than I really am, I never would have had a chance to be here, and I'm grateful that I'm here."
"We're on the same team, same family, same network," he concluded.
