Howard Stern Rips Kelly On Air: 'You Can't Walk Off Work!'
May 4 2016, Updated 12:38 a.m. ET
Howard Stern blasted Kelly Ripa for refusing to show up at Live! saying that "you can't walk off work!" Click through the gallery to find out what Stern thinks Ripa should have done after getting blindsided by Michael Strahan quitting the show.
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The Shock Jock weighed in on the Live! scandal on his Sirius XM radio show, telling his listeners that he completely disagreed with the way Ripa dealt https://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/kelly-ripa-michael-strahan-live-feud-last-day-announcement/ with the news that Strahan quit her show and was moving to Good Morning America full time. Ripa did not appear on the show after she was blindsided by the news. While she said it was a pre-planned vacation, it seemed calculated to others, and Stern called that decision a misstep. "There wasn't one day when I was being f**ked with that I didn't show up for work," he recalled, telling about his history of butting heads with management.
Kelly Ripa looks over the shoulders while leaving the Gym in New York City
Ripa was absent from Live! for a solid week, leaving Strahan with a series of guest hosts, and Stern said that he personally never missed a single day of work after fighting with his superiors. "You have to figure out how to get back on air. Even If your boss is f**king you," he said.
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Stern said that he and Ripa were at one point close friends and her husband, Marc Consuelo, even performed his marriage ceremony to Beth Ostrosky. But they stopped speaking, he said, and Stern revealed that he thought about reaching out to her as the disaster unfolded. "If I felt comfortable calling her I would have said 'Take a breath. Go into work.' When it comes to work you can't punish the audience and you can't walk off work," he insisted.
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He admonished Ripa, "However it is you must go on the air. You have a contact. You can't play hooky on your own show."
Lara Spencer and Michael Strahan seen at the “Good Morning America” studios in NYC
Stern conceded that ABC execs blindsided Ripa with the news of Strahan's departure, admitting, "She was treated unfairly," but he said she needed to buck up: "Deal with it. You gotta show up for work."
Kelly Ripa and Bethenny Frankel go to Polo Club in NYC
When she returned to Live! Ripa spoke directly to her audience. "I needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts," she said. "After 26 years with this company I earned the right." Stern sympathized, but said she did the wrong thing. "We've all been humiliated," Stern said, hinting at her reported salary, "and we don't make $20 million."
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Stern said that he believed Ripa should have put the situation "in perspective." He said that she was probably given "poor advice or didn't give her any advice. I never would advise them to walk off their own show. You can't walk off." He also said that her actions had a negative impact on her reputation. "Don't come off as a hardnosed spoiled business person," he sniffed.
Kelly Ripa is back on “Live with Kelly and Michael.” on ABC
"I'm not saying this to criticize Kelly," Stern says. "I'm saying it's a tough road to negotiate and it got the better of her." The Live! host clearly made the wrong decision, according to Stern. "The show must go on," he said. "She's gotta show up for work and it did make her look bad."
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Stern said that he would have given Ripa solid advice: "I would say just show up." And he placed the blame on the people she has on her team, claiming, "Probably she didn't have a good advisor or management."