‘Live’ Team Dishes On Kelly Ripa And Mark Consuelos’ “Undeniable” Chemistry, Art Moore’s Retirement And What’s In Store This Season

Live with Kelly and Mark may have just kicked off Season 37 on Sept. 3, but the team behind the beloved syndicated morning show is preparing to lose a network fixture: WABC-TV’s Vice President of Programming and Live‘s executive in charge of production, Art Moore.

Speaking with DECIDER in the show’s green room, Moore, whose last episode as part of the Live team airs on Friday, Sept. 20, deems his departure “bittersweet,” praising his co-workers as “the tough part” of leaving his post. When asked about his retirement plans, Moore jokes that he has none, which is what he claims “is exciting about it.”

“I said, ‘No more meetings, no more schedules.’ I want to just do nothing for a while,” he remarks. “Then, you know, obviously I’ll get into stuff. I need a gray period.”

Fortunately Kelly Ripa, who tells DECIDER that she and her co-host Mark Consuelos “are both in denial” of Moore’s retirement, insists she will “always” have a spot for him at the table of her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, which Moore appeared on last week.

“The Art Moore origin story is the most interesting story I’ve ever heard,” she muses. “Truly.”

While both Moore and executive producer Michael Gelman have witnessed the changing of the guards — or rather, the changing of the co-hosts — several times, Gelman sheds light on a key factor that sets Ripa and Consuelos’ dynamic apart.

“Well, they sleep together,” he teases.

In all seriousness, Gelman highlights how Live has “always been kind of a faux husband and wife set-up, where it’s these two interesting people who are sitting next to each other, having coffee every morning together.” However, the fact that Ripa and Consuelos are married evokes a certain authenticity, one that Gelman feels today’s viewers yearn for.

“But this is a real husband and wife, and in this day and age of reality TV and where everyone wants things [to be] more real, what used to be a part-time fill-in for Mark now is the full-time job for both of them, and it’s just fantastic,” he explains. “The chemistry is undeniable and it’s real. I mean, it’s real life.”

Nonetheless, Ripa and Consuelos tell DECIDER that they hardly ever take work home with them, if at all.

“It’s so funny. Before we started working together, I would be somewhere shooting, and I would share my day with her, and she would share her day,” Consuelos recalls. “We talked about work a lot. We [now] don’t talk about work, I would say, at all — rarely.”

As Ripa points out, “For the most part, we don’t really discuss work at home anymore, because we already know what happened. So it’s not like we have to fill each other in on what happened.”

The two do admit that if something “struck [them] as funny,” it may come up in at-home discussion.

“Or sometimes a trivia caller will get into his head where he’ll figure it out. ‘I can’t believe she tricked me.’ Like, that will come up,” Ripa explains.

Consuelos, who joined Ripa as co-host last April, reveals what he has learned with one season now under his belt.

“I learned that when I mess up, it’s not that big of a deal, because you have a whole new show the next day to mess up again,” he quips. “I think I’m a little bit easier on myself when I screw up something or I read something wrong, which is almost every day. I think I’m a little more comfortable with the interviews. I used to be so scared.”

Meanwhile, Ripa commends Consuelos’ “easy and seamless” transition into the role, claiming that “where he got in about three days took [her] about eight years to get to that same level of comfort.”

“Everything that he worried about, we were not worried about because from our perspective, he was doing everything exactly right,” she says.

As for what’s new this season, Gelman tells us they are “always evolving this show every year.”

“I’ve always said that we like evolution, not revolution, because people know what to expect,” he adds. “They want the continuity. But at the same time, we try to make improvements.”

Citing changes in the show’s signature “Stump Mark” segment, including a new graphic, Gelman also teases Live‘s upcoming Halloween show, which he says they’ve already been holding meetings for and begun filming, as well as “a lot of big Christmas programming,” such as their “annual sweater show.”

With respect to how a talk show like Live fits into today’s streaming-centric TV landscape, Moore argues that Live is “different than most of the other talk shows,” likening it to “the Seinfeld of talk shows.”

“We’re about nothing. [People] know it’s safe to tune in. We’re not going to get into controversy, we’re not going to have trick questions to try and get something out of guests that they don’t want to talk about. It’s just fun,” he says. “So I think there’s a place for that, and I think that’s really sustained us for all these years. Viewers know what to expect, the producers have been very good about moving the show forward, and yet keeping the basic format.”

Gelman echoes this sentiment, describing the show as a longtime “bastion of positivity and fun.”

“That’s what we do. We counterprogram the news, which we follow… So we’re kind of a respite for people to come to when they’re looking to get away from all the tough things in life,” he says, describing the show as “very familial.”

“It’s family-oriented, and we’re one big family, and we project that, and it’s real,” he details. “We’re trying to appeal to those same people at home.”

Consuelos mentions growing up with The Phil Donahue Show, describing the show as “probably the biggest influence to [him] as a daytime talk show [co-host],” outside of watching his wife co-host Live for over 20 years ahead of his arrival.

“Whenever I’m on location somewhere, I get to check in with her, and I get to at least connect with her and watch the show and see what she’s wearing, and I feel closer to her,” he shares. “So this show would be my favorite show.”

Ripa calls herself an “avid Judge Judy watcher,” and notes that despite her work schedule keeping her from tuning into live daytime content, she still counts herself as a “big Sherri Shepherd fan.”

“I love her. I’m always rooting for her. She’s my friend, and so we check in with each other off-camera,” she says. “Once in a while, if I’m doing a long wardrobe fitting, I get to see her show. And I’m always so impressed with her ability to penetrate. You know, she comes through. Those are my big two. Judy and Sherri.”