Kelly Ripa Missing Again From ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ as New Co-Host Fills In

Kelly Ripa is absent again from Live With Kelly and Ryan, marking her third consecutive day this week away from the morning talk show. Ripa’s co-host Ryan Seacrest took the stage with guest host Ali Wentworth Wednesday morning, telling viewers at home that Ripa had the “day off,” then going straight into the show with Wentworth, who joked that Seacrest and the Live crew offered to pay her in Bitcoin for filling in.

Producers of the show shared a behind-the-scenes Instagram video of Wentworth and Seacrest hosting together, showing them go live Wednesday morning with the caption, “[Ali Wentworth] is today’s guest host!” Fans reacted well to the news, leaving comments like “Love her” and “She’s fabulous!”

Ripa was missing both Monday and Tuesday from the show, with temporary replacement Maria Menounos co-hosting alongside Seacrest. Fans of Live weighed in on the temporary hosting switch-up, with one person commenting, “Love Maria and Ryan as cohosts!” Another added, “Great show with Maria and Ryan, fresh energy much needed for the show.”

Ripa has been mum about how she’s spending her days off, not revealing much about her daily activity on social media, but it’s possible she could be spending spring break with her husband Mark Consuelos and their three kids, Michael, 23, Lola, 19, and Joaquin, 18.

On Tuesday, Ripa shared a few videos for National Puppy Day of her family’s dogs, including Lena, a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix she adopted after she was featured as an adoptable pet on Live‘s Happy Pets Segments earlier this month. “The Consueloses have made a decision to adopt Lena,” she told Seacrest during a show last week, revealing that they first introduced Lena to their other rescue dog, Chewie, to make sure that they were compatible.

“My whole fear was that I didn’t want Chewie to feel replaced in any way,” Ripa shared, revealing that they quickly realized the dogs had bonded when they found Chewie outside Lena’s crate, “sitting next to her with their noses together.” It appears from Ripa’s video this week that the two dogs are getting along just fine.