When Michael Strahan departed from Live with Kelly and Michael, fans were cheering for host Kelly Ripa‘s husband Mark Consuelos to take the co-host spot. But with his work on USA’s Queen of the South, Hulu’s Difficult People, and Fox’s Pitch, the 46-year-old simply doesn’t have the time.
The couple, who met on ABC’s All My Children in 1995, have been married for two decades and are the parents of three children. It’s no wonder audiences enjoy their time co-hosting on the show so much, their chemistry transfers seamlessly from real life to the small screen.
“I’m her co-host in life,” Consuelos told Variety Latino. “The first cup of coffee is the one we have together before she goes to work and before I leave the house. That’s the most important one. That being said, whoever gets that job is really lucky. It’s such a fun place to work. It’s an easy one hour [job], you’re in and you’re out. It’s a blast.”
With Consuelos unavailable there have been a few names thrown around as possibilities: Anderson Cooper, Jerry O’Connell, Alec Baldwin, Rob Lowe, and Mario Lopez. So who is at the top of Mark’s list to fill the empty co-host chair permanently?
“I really love Anderson Cooper, he said. “I love him so much, he’s so funny and so smart. The level of gravitas and intelligence, he’s also very very silly. He’s a really funny guy. I think with everything going on in the world, he’d bring an interesting perspective. He just has so much integrity when it comes to that. I have my fingers crossed for Anderson Cooper.”
You can currently catch Consuelos on Queen of the South, Thursday nights on USA Network.
