MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: After parting ways with ‘Live’, host Ryan Seacrest is set to return to the chat show for some special guest appearances through the summer. Mark Consuelos, who is now the permanent co-host with his wife, Kelly Ripa, revealed the news in an exclusive interview. Seacrest announced his departure back in April and has already made a guest appearance previously.
Consuelos, 52, revealed Seacrest, 48, will be back for some new content with him and Ripa, 52, as the hosts of 'Live' indulge in their summer break. Fans have previously criticized 'Live' for prerecording content when the hosts are away, but now it seems like viewers can sit back and enjoy fresh content.
Ryan Seacrest comes back for more
Seacrest decided to end his time at ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ in April following a busy schedule of other projects like ‘American Idol’ along with the demand for traveling. The host, based in Los Angeles, first joined the chat show in May 2017 and spent six years working with Ripa. He is now replaced by Consuelos, rebranding the name of the show to 'Live with Kelly and Mark'.
Talking about the summer plans for the chat show, Mark said, “Ryan Seacrest, who is a friend of ours and a family to the show, will be coming back where he will have some new and never-seen-before material of him and Kelly in the next couple of weeks," as per The Sun.
Nothing is confirmed as of yet but many have speculated that Seacrest will also be adding another show to his long list of work - ‘Wheel of Fortune’, following the announcement of Pat Sajak’s departure. Consuelos commented on this with, "I think he would be great and that's a great job for him. Although I've never really discussed it with him if that's something he wanted to do."
'A lot of shows in our space have a full summer hiatus'
Consuelos addressed fans’ discontent with the pre-recording system for the chat show. He said, "For years, Live has had vacations and we create fun new content and find fresh material for the days where people are on summer break." He further added, "A lot of shows in our space have a full summer hiatus and they go to reruns." "So everything you guys see that we've been able to do work really hard to give the fans new material never seen before," Consuelos concluded.