Strahan says the chemistry is genuine: "You can't get on live TV every morning and fool people. We're two people who can laugh at themselves and laugh at each other." The show's formula won't change, though Gelman says he "can't wait" to feature Strahan in the syndicated show's annual Halloween costume party.
Strahan, 40, brought along his fianc e, Nicole Murphy (Eddie's ex), and says the welcome "was a little overwhelming for about 10 seconds. And then when I was hugging Kelly, that's when I was calming down."
Though it was one of summer's worst-kept secrets, Strahan's selection a few weeks back prompted congratulatory messages, including some from other candidates, all of which went unanswered. "I didn't want to be the squeaky wheel, so I just ignored everything," Ripa says, adding that she stopped tweeting a month ago.
He'll continue to be a host of Fox NFL Sunday , commuting to Los Angeles on fall weekends, then return to New York to be with his "new TV wife."
Strahan has co-hosted the show 20 times, most of them since Philbin left last November, and was shown in a clip from a guest appearance in February 2008, just after his New York Giants won the Kathie Lee Gifford . "I was having so many flashbacks of my life 12 years ago."
Strahan is no stranger to television. In addition to his Fox duties, he starred in Brothers, a short-lived 2009 sitcom on that network, and has hosted cable reality shows. Was his appeal to male sports fans a factor in his selection? "It wasn't the reason we picked him," Gelman says, "but it could really help with that."
Tuesday's welcome show had its typical mix of host chat, celebrities (Homeland's Claire Danes), performance (American Idol winner Phillip Phillips) and two members of the winning U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, who paired up with a track-suit clad Ripa and Strahan in a balance-beam competition. (They tied.)
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