Los Angeles – Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan won a Daytime Emmy Sunday for their talk show, capping a turbulent few days which saw Ripa storm off over her co-presenter’s decision to quit.
The pair shared the prize for best entertainment talk show host for ABC’s morning programme “Live! With Kelly and Michael” at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
The award came after Ripa, incensed that executives at Disney, which owns ABC, left her out of the loop about Strahan’s departure for sister show “Good Morning America.”
She reportedly learned on April 19 of Strahan’s decision to move on, less than an hour before the news was announced to the media, and went on a two-day hiatus last week.
She returned to the morning show on Tuesday, holding hands with Strahan and joking that “our long national nightmare is over” before delivering a monologue in which she said the row had spiraled out of control.
“I needed a couple days to gather my thoughts. After 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” Ripa, who has presented the show since 2001, told the studio audience.
Neither of the presenters was at the Daytime Emmy Awards, which went untelevised for the second time in three years after the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences decided to forgo a live airing due the high broadcast cost.
Other winners included “CBS Sunday Morning,” for best morning show, “The Price is Right,” also on CBS, for best gameshow and ABC’s “General Hospital” for best directing team on a drama series.
