Live with Kelly and Michael my two cents

Here’s my two cents on something that seems unimportant to most people the Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan situation. People are taking sides and “picking a team” but the reality is they are both adults and they are on a TV show. The executives that pay them care about their bottom line: profit. Ripa may be learning her feeling of staff and co-workers as “family” doesn’t really gel with the reality of a cutthroat business that really only cares about the numbers and profitability of their product. The people that want to paint Ripa as “female” and she shouldn’t have taken a sick day want to chastise someone who took one day extra off. In the “real world” meaning people who aren’t on TV, think about you and your co-workers. How many people have taken a sick day because they were hung over or had a sudden emergency. It happens all the time and no one is taking sides.

Ripa is correct, there was a lack of respect here. She has been a long term employee and she is vested about her brand and product. She had every right to be told, in advance, that Strahan was moving on. It’s her name in the title as is his. It was a management decision to leave the co-star out of those who knew vs. those they thought didn’t need to know. 

Strahan on the other hand, before he was a TV Celebrity was a football player. He knows first-hand what being part of a team means. Negotiations and contracts aside (because that really does come down to the one to one discussion) the basic premise of being a “team” or in this case the co-star is respecting your other co-star. His name is in the title and he, for five years sat next to Ripa and was paid very well and it was a platform for where he is going next. 

The bottom line to me (whether it matters to anyone else or not) is Strahan made a decision that excluded the basic respect that should’ve been extended to his co-star and partner in show name that says more about the true nature of their relationship. It’s a television show and its two people who worked together and their names are in the title. It doesn’t mean they really love or care about each other however it does mean you should respect the other party enough to broach the subject of leaving with courtesy. What Strahan chose to do was cowardly and unprofessional. 

What the higher ups chose to do was completely disrespectful and Ripa was correct in stating what she said her first day back in that it started a conversation about respect in the workplace. So, regardless of the side you may have chosen, the reality is they are both paid very well and have high exposure jobs that entertain people on a daily basis but it’s not the exception to the corporate world because people leave, get fired and move on to better jobs every day but how they chose to conduct themselves is what the true issue is here and to me Strahan handled this badly and it says more about who he really is vs. the television personality he presents.

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