Ryan Seacrest Misses ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ While Awaiting Results of COVID-19 Test

By Liz Kocan @lizburrito
Published Oct. 20, 2020, 10:44 a.m. ET

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Most people can take a day off from their job without an entire country wondering where they are, but not Ryan Seacrest. On Monday, October 19, Ryan Seacrest did not join Kelly Ripa on LIVE With Kelly and Ryan, and fans-turned-conspiracy-theorists immediately wondered where the host was. However, today’s show did offer an explanation of Seacrest’s absence: Ripa explained that he was awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test and that with “all the new restrictions now, this is one of them, you have to wait until [the test] comes back negative.”

While it’s common for morning hosts to take time off, they are often temporarily replaced by pre-scheduled guest hosts (and on short notice, spouses like Mark Consuelos or Joy Philbin would often be at the ready as a last-minute replacement host.) When Ripa appeared solo yesterday without explanation, it sparked a series of furious suspicions about his missing presence.

Seacrest has been burning the candle at both ends for years working several jobs at once depending on the TV cycle. At the moment he’s co-hosting LIVE, which only just returned to the studio in September after remote production kept the cast and crew apart for six months, he’s hosting a new season of American Idol, and he’s hosting his daily iHeartRadio show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest.

While he has continued to post to social media over the past few days, Seacrest has not directly acknowledged his absence from LIVE or the status of his tests. Fingers crossed he’s okay, and will be back in the co-host chair soon!