MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: Ryan Seacrest made a return to his previous seat on 'Live' alongside co-host Kelly Ripa. This is Seacrest's second appearance on the show after his official departure.
While Seacrest returned to his position, he seemed to be filling in for the now-permanent host Mark Consuelos, who was nowhere to be found. Many were left wondering about his whereabouts.
Where is Mark Consuelos?
Mark Consuelos has not really disappeared into thin air. The episode with Seacrest as a guest was pre-recorded. These were likely shot while Seacrest was still a part of 'Live' and Mark Consuelos hadn't been announced as the one replacing him. It was a pre-recorded segment where Seacrest even referred to the date as June 20 in the introduction.
Consuelos seemed to be aware of this segment as he recently revealed in an interview with The US Sun that Seacrest will come back to the screens of 'Live'. His guest appearance is because the 'Live' crew has gone on a brief summer break, along with the two hosts. He shared in the interview, "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."
Ryan Seacrest fills in for Mark Consuelos
The episode was pre-recorded but still partially new as it had an entirely new intro and outro. Host Ripa and Seacrest had a catch-up session at the beginning of the episode. The all-new opening segment was followed by a trivia game with one fan caller. The episode then transitioned into previously aired interviews of Chris Hemsworth and Tyra Banks from old episodes.
The host duo had also recorded a new outro for closing off their episode, which might be a part of all of Seacrest's guest appearances. While the 'Live' alum is back on the broadcast, it is quite unlikely that he will ever return to the show for good. He is still juggling several projects, which was his primary reason for quitting the show. There are also talks that he may host the game show 'Wheel of Fortune'.
