Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest hosted their highly-anticipated Halloween-themed show on the Oct. 29 episode of Live! Every year, Kelly and Ryan spend weeks preparing for this big event, where they dress in several costumes throughout their hour-long show. In addition to these costumes, they also film pre-taped segments in other looks, which are generally inspired by some of the biggest pop culture moments of the year or of the past. In 2021, the hosts wore 40 costumes in total throughout their hour-long episode!
The fun times continued with this year’s show, as Kelly and Ryan honored some of the year’s most buzzed-about television shows, like Ted Lasso, Squid Games and Bridgerton. They also joked about the obsession with space travel and the various civilian space launches in 2021 by dressing as astronauts for one of their looks. The two looked awesome in their spacesuits as they did a bit about launching into the atmosphere. The episode was themed as the “Out Of This World Halloween” show.
The first sketch of the Halloween show was a pre-taped skit about Kelly and Ryan being the first talk show hosts to launch into space. “It’s nice and roomy in here,” Ryan said, as they sat inside a fake rocket ship. The launch was narrated, with Kelly and Ryan freaking out inside the capsule as they “flew into the sky.” It was a “successful mission” for group, which ended with Kelly joking about how they “barely got off the ground” before turning back around.
After the launch, Kelly and Ryan arrived live in the studio in their space gear. Then, they appeared in another pre-taped skit about a hot new workout trend. Kelly dressed as the ultimate 80s workout queen, Jane Fonda, to promote the product. Meanwhile, Ryan channeled Richard Simmons in his old classic workout looks, and Kelly put on a Suzanne Somers costume, as well.
After a commercial break, the duo put their own spin on The Queen’s Gambit, with Kelly dressing as Anya Taylor-Joy’s character, Beth Harmon, from the show. The skit mocked the character’s hair and makeup, and joked about what might possibly happen during the show’s second season — with Ryan coming in dressed as Beth’s brother! Beth’s brother didn’t like chess, though, so he played a new game, which allowed the group to mock another popular show, Squid Games.
It’s always a fun-filled day when Kelly and Ryan celebrate Halloween. In 2020, they channeled characters from hit shows like Tiger King and Schitt’s Creek, while their 2019 looks were all inspired by viral moments of the year. From Baby Shark, to Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” video, there were plenty of talked-about characters to dress as. The 2018 theme was re-boots, so Kelly and Ryan dressed as characters from some of the most iconic television shows of all-time, including I Love Lucy and more.