Live with Kelly and Ryanis filming virtually ascoronavirus casesspike due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
“Good morning, everyone! Don’t adjust your dials,” Ripa, 51, said. “We’re coming to you from the studio, which we made to look like two separate bedrooms. It is January 3, 2022!”
Seacrest, 47, chimed in, “Are you sure?”
“It seems like January 3, 2021,” theAmerican Idolhost continued. “We’re back at home out of an abundance of caution with the Omicron virus.”
Ripa then addressed the widespread surge in COVID-19 cases. The morning show shoots in New York City, a region thatbroke a new daily recordwith nearly 50,000 new cases on Saturday.
“I don’t think there’s a person in America right now, and probably Canada, who doesn’t know somebody who has COVID right now — this new variant of the coronavirus or has had it recently or is about to get it,” she said. “So out of an abundance of caution right now, we are back home.”
Ripa additionally shared a behind-the-scenes look at filming from home, uploading a photo of herself and Seacrest preparing to go live. TheAll My Childrenalum captioned the post, “This again.”
Kelly Ripa/Instagram
Prior to Monday’s episode, Seacrest hosted ABC’s annualDick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrestspecial from Times Square on Friday evening. He toldUSA Todaybefore the main event that the pandemic “has to be top of mindas we continue to work through this difficult time.”
Live with Kelly and Ryanhas faced filming setbacks amid the COVID pandemic. Ripa and Seacrest began co-hosting the series remotely in March 2020 as a result, though they were later able toreunite in-studio that September after 180 days apart.
“It’s gonna be a minute, because we are used to shooting the show through a computer screen,” Ripa said at the beginning of their return episode as Seacrest added, “When we started going through our computer screens at home, I got so used to it, I forgot how to do this.”
Several COVID-19 safety regulations were put in place ahead of the in-person return, including not having a studio audience present.
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One month after the show’s in-studio return, Seacrest was absent for two days as hewaited for his COVID-19 test resultsto come back negative.
“Thank you for covering, following the strict protocol,” he said to Ripa at the time. “Got the negative test results for COVID. Makes you feel very good.”
Check your local listings forLive with Kelly and Ryan.
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source: people.com
