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March is Women's History Month!

Ex-NFL Star Strahan Joins 'Live! With Kelly'

The new team: Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan earlier today in New York City.
Ben Gabbe
/
Getty Images
The new team: Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan earlier today in New York City.

Live! With Kelly is now Live! with Kelly and Michael.

Michael Strahan, a retired defensive end from the New York Giants, was officially named today to fill Regis Philbin's slot on ABC-TV's popular daytime chat show.

As Time's NewsFeed blog says, the proper response to the announcement is probably "duh": "His permanent appointment to the chair just right of Kelly was made official this morning after months of speculation — and weeks of simply waiting to hear his name called."

The 40-year-old Strahan is 6-foot, 5-inches tall. Ripa stands 5-foot-3. As the 41-year-old Ripa said of her new co-host, "I know that he can bench press me if he wanted to."

Philbin retired from the show last November.

Strahan will continue as one of the analysts on Fox NFL Sunday, according to ESPN's Playbook blog.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.