‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’s First 2022 Show Gets Big Change

Live With Kelly and Ryan is back to filming virtually amid the spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant. Monday, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest began their first episode of 2022 by addressing their return to filming the morning show virtually as part of the network’s safety precautions. 

“Good morning, everyone! Don’t adjust your dials,” Ripa told viewers. “We’re coming to you from the studio, which we made to look like two separate bedrooms. It is Jan. 3, 2022!” Seacrest asked in response, “Are you sure?” before adding it sure seems like 2021 with the return to virtual hosting. “We’re back at home out of an abundance of caution with the Omicron virus,” he explained.

Ripa continued that the show, being filmed in New York City, is at the epicenter of a new breakout, with nearly 50,000 new cases being reported 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 also shared some behind-the-scenes secrets of filming from home, sharing a photo of herself and Seacrest preparing to film from their home studios. “This again,” she captioned the shot. Live With Kelly and Ryan first began remotely hosting the show in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, but reunited in the studio in September after spending 180 days apart from one another in the studio. 

“It’s gonna be a minute, because we are used to shooting the show through a computer screen,” Ripa said during the reunion episode, with Seacrest adding, “When we started going through our computer screens at home, I got so used to it, I forgot how to do this.” Since the hosts have returned, the show has instituted a variety of new safety measures, including broadcasting without a studio audience, the use of masks and strict COVID testing. Just one month after the show’s return, Seacrest was out for two days while waiting for a negative test result, but ended up not having contracted the virus.