- Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos left their Upper West Side studio in New York City where Live has been filmed for the last 37 years
- The two talk show hosts opened up about their temporary filming location during the April 7 broadcast
- “There is 1.2 million square feet, 22 stories. I don’t even know what story we’re on,” Ripa said of their spacious, open-air space
New home, new beginnings!
On April 3, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos left their Upper West Side studio in New York City where Live has been filmed for the last 37 years, and are now filming at a temporary location until April 14.
The married talk show hosts opened up about their short-term digs at the top of the April 7 broadcast, which saw them chatting with guests in a spacious, open-air studio located in the Disney Company’s new N.Y.C. headquarters.
“For decades, we’ve been broadcasting from the Upper West Side at 7 Lincoln Square,” Consuelos, 54, said. “And today we are coming to you from our new home downtown! This is the great room within the Walt Disney company’s headquarters. I would say it’s state-of-the-art.”
Ripa, 54, shared that the building “encompasses an entire city block.”
She said, “There is 1.2 million square feet, 22 stories. I don’t even know what story we’re on.”
Consuelos added that the building “holds approximately 5,000 employees,” to which Ripa joked, “And I believe they’re all here,” as the camera panned across the audience.
The hosts revealed that the new building has tons of special amenities, including outdoor terraces, wellness rooms, screening rooms, a reading room and more. Ripa, who shares three kids with Consuelos, even noted that the building has nursing stations for new mothers.
“Back in the day, and everybody that works here can attest, the former nursing station used to be the makeup and hair room during the briefing meeting,” she said. “I would just say, ‘Look away if you can’t handle it!’ ”
Ripa and Consuelos posted on Instagram showing off the new background for this week’s episodes. In the snaps, the two hosts pose with guests Elisabeth Moss and Jay Shetty with their signature plush yellow seats and a black side table topped with their branded coffee mugs.
Anchor Pedro Rivera also gave a behind the scenes look at the new space. He shared a snap of the crowded studio filled with camera rigs and audience seating on X, calling it a “pretty impressive set up!”
But why the new location? Ripa and Consuelos shared in an October 2024 episode that the longtime studio had been sold amid other ABC shows making their move to Disney’s new building.
“Allegedly we’re moving downtown to this fancy shmancy state-of-the-art studio,” Ripa said during the broadcast.
Later that month, she joked during another episode that their backstage looked like a “one show Walmart” as the team prepared for the move.
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“If you work here, you will know backstage there is such seasonal confusion … There are wreaths, there are Christmas trees, I saw a turkey, there’s an American flag, a bunch of pumpkins,” she said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear we were closing this studio down soon.”
A rep for ABC previously confirmed to PEOPLE that “Kelly, Mark, Gelman, Deja and the whole Live crew will showcase the inside of Disney’s gorgeous, brand-new downtown headquarters as they present the show from the sprawling 10th floor in front of a live audience.”
The two hosts will broadcast from the temporary space until April 14, when they’ll debut their “fresh, new, state-of-the-art studio home” in the Disney headquarters.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Ripa and Consuelos described leaving the studio as an emotional experience due to the role its played in their family history.
“Our kids grew up here,” Consuelos said. “They’d come visit mom here a lot — they were always backstage, even when they were babies.”
“They came to work with me every day until they went to school,” Ripa added. “They would go to All My Children with me, they would come here with me… we meant when we say they grew up in this building, in these four walls.”
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