Is Chris Hardwick Throwing His Hat in the Ring to Co-Host Live with Kelly?

The search for Kelly Ripa's new Live with Kelly co-host is still on after her previous co-host Michael Strahan suddenly exited the show last April. Since then, everyone from Jimmy Kimmel to Jerry O'Connell to our very own Andy Cohen have sat beside Kelly on the talk show. Kroy Biermann has also been doing his best to land the coveted spot. 

Chris Hardwick is one of the latest guest co-hosts on Live with Kelly this week. "Kelly's amazing! Kelly is so to the point where on commercial breaks, and you've done the show, she jumps up and does warm up for her own show," The Wall host told Andy on Wednesday night's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (clip above). 

But did Chris enjoy his time on Live with Kelly enough to consider becoming Kelly's guest co-host permanently? "I love doing it. I guess I would have to see if they ask me," he said. "I don't think that I would stop doing anything that I'm currently doing, but if I could do everything, I would say I would really strongly consider it." 

Andy pointed out that, like himself, Chris seems to subscribe to the "Seacrestian model," referring to Ryan Seacrest's modus operandi of taking on a ton of gigs at once. In addition to serving as the host of the new game show The Wall, Chris continues to emcee @midnight, The Walking Dead after show, Talking Dead, and the Nerdist Podcast, just to name a few things that currently keep him busy.  

Kelly revealed why it's taking the Live with Kelly team some time to find Michael's official replacement when she stopped by WWHL in November. "You know, we really didn't set a timeframe for ourselves. We just wanted to wait until we found the right person. What we didn't anticipate was that we would have such an outpouring of interest, so our list got very long very quickly," she said. "So we've been trying to keep it as narrow as possible, but then people pop up." 

Watch Kelly do some more dishing on what Live has been like since Michael's departure, below.

When will ‘Live’ Choose a Co-Host?