Kelly Ripa has had quite a year.
She and Mark Consuelos celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. Their eldest child, son Michael, went off to college. Ripa won yet another Daytime Emmy. And today, she celebrates her 46th birthday.
Oh yeah, and she helped turn the morning-show landscape on its head by drawing attention to the fact that, to this day, women—even the most powerful ones in media—still tend to make a lot of people uncomfortable when they stand their ground and speak their minds.
Was that this year?
Because the Michael Strahan days—few though they were compared to some morning show runs—already seem like a TV-lifetime ago.
But it's only been just over five months since the seemingly well-oiled machine that was Live! With Kelly and Michael ground to a halt when Strahan opted to take a full-time job with Good Morning America. Ripa was made fully aware of his decision, of course...
Eventually. After Strahan told the network, went on the air and did a whole show and the official announcement was about to be released to the rest of the office.
And so went one of the more shocking turn of events in morning show memory—not only Strahan's exit, but the revelation that Ripa didn't get a heads-up until moments before the news broke. One of the highest-paid women in not just talk shows but all of television, getting shut out of the discussion.
Understandably, Ripa was livid. But what she did next is the real story.
It so happened that she and Consuelos had their 20th anniversary vacation planned for the ensuing week, so she had a few days to collect her thoughts before she having to return to the routine of chitchat, massive coffee mugs and prize package giveaways.
Before she came back, there was every reason to suspect that it would be fairly anticlimactic, that professionalism and network politics would win the day.
And while professionalism did take home an honorable mention, when Ripa did come back after a week off, she didn't just let it go.
She remained the picture of poise—and to be honest, half of what some saw as her sniping at Strahan didn't seem any different from her usual routine of teasing, sarcasm and a soupçon of snark. But Ripa also took the opportunity to make it clear—both with words and subliminally—that how she was treated was not OK.
"I first want to honestly, sincerely thank you for welcoming me back to this show," Ripa told the audience at the top of her first show back. "The love, the show of support to this bizarre time has been really overwhelming. I really needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts. After 26 years with this company, I earned the right—and let's be honest, I know half of you called in sick to be here [to watch the drama unfold], so we get each other. In that time, I gained some perspective. I always speak from the heart. I didn't want to come out here and just, like, say something I might regret.
"What transpired, though, over the course of a few days has been extraordinary in the sense that it started a much greater conversation about communication and consideration and, most importantly, respect in the workplace. Since we're being honest, I don't consider this just a workplace. This is my second home. This is a place that I've devoted myself to, not just because of you, our loyal viewers, but because of all of the producers and the crew who work on this show. We have an incredible team. We are incredibly devoted to one another. We are family. Apologies have been made and the best thing to come out of all of this, you guys, is that our parent company has assured me that Live! is a priority."
For anyone shocked that she didn't immediately pretend that everything that transpired behind the scenes was water under the bridge, Ripa's classy summation of what happened may have been more than her colleagues deserved.
Not to say that Michael Strahan definitively played a villainous figure in the incident, the NFL great turned TV star since admitting that there was a lapse in communication in the work place but he didn't mean any harm.
And you'd be hard-pressed to drum up sympathy in some corners for Ripa, she of the multimillion-dollar paycheck and perennial cheer. Especially after she returned to work and seemed, in some views, to be needling Strahan just a bit. Some decried her acting bitchy, or bratty or too sassy. You know, terms that are used to refer to a woman (or a child) acting up.
Yet didn't she have every right to clear the air with, as she pointed out, the viewers who've been on this years-long journey with her and her TV family—a journey that started more than a decade before Strahan arrived? A journey that briefly took a turn when Regis Philbin, the former lead name on Live!, decided it was time to leave the show and also didn't involve Ripa in the discussion beforehand, after they'd been co-hosts for 11 years?
Exactly.
"I think that all people are deserving of fair treatment in the work place. People deserve respect," Ripa told People in May after some of the dust had settled. "People should be treated equally and with dignity.
"I think that requires a certain amount of empathy on a level. When you're dealing with big business, it's easy to forget that you're dealing with people and that people have feelings. It's easy to just look at it like a business unit, a unit, a unit."
And sure enough, many thought she had sold her rights to get mad in exchange for being well-paid, or that her demand for common courtesy was crossing a behavioral line. In rightfully seeking the respect that 15 years spent on Live! had seemingly earned her, Ripa was serving as a reminder that people—including other women—can still be put off when a woman speaks out, seeks to protect what she's worked for, strives for more and doesn't quietly fall in line.
It's an age-old problem that's slowly being eradicated, and it's nearly absent in some circles, but it certainly hasn't gone away. She's complaining, she's being too aggressive, she's harping on a subject. Mostly observations that tend to follow the pronoun "she."
And considering the game of talk show musical chairs that's always playing out somewhere, Ripa's decision to hold fast to her convictions was a brave move—and an important one for the entire TV landscape.
Because fast-forward to now and there Ripa remains, once again top-lining Live! solo while the search for a permanent co-host continues. She's still a fan favorite, ratings have remained strong and, better yet, she can be secure in the knowledge that she didn't mask her true feelings when it might have been easier to be the breezy gal who rolls with the network punches.
And since a tip of the hat also goes to the confidence that comes with age, we'll take this opportunity to wish Kelly Ripa the happiest of birthdays—and thank you, Kelly, as always, for the wake-up call.