Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest to wear 40 different costumes on 'Live' Halloween Show

NEW YORK -- It's become a tradition on "Live With Kelly and Ryan" to dress up for Halloween. Each year, their costumes seem to get more elaborate and their costume changes more numerous.

This year they will wear 40 different outfits because, "this is our audience's favorite show of the year," Kelly Ripa told Eyewitness News Entertainment Reporter Sandy Kenyon during a break in taping.

Fans of the show will recall the year they swapped identities and came out as each other.

Before the pandemic, members of the of the studio audience came in costume, but this year they will have to appear virtually.

Ryan Seacrest told Kenyon, "it is incredible to see audience members' great creativity when it comes to this day."

During a time when humor has been in short supply, dressing-up may be more important than ever.

"We tend to be irreverent," Kelly said. "So it's hard to be irreverent in times when things are not so irreverent!"

Kenyon interviewed them in costume as the Jetsons, and this is not the first time the hosts have made fun of TV shows.

"This year," said Ryan, "it's 'Squid Games,' 'The Queen's Gambit,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'Bridgerton.' How they collide? We don't remember!"

Only Executive Producer Michael Gelman knows if this will be a trick or treat, because he is the ringmaster, which is what he said as he got into period dress for the "Bridgerton" segment.

The recent trip by ordinary Americans into space inspired this edition of "Live" to be called "Out of This World."

"We've always been a bunch of space cadets around here and finally it's in vogue," laughed Kelly, "it's cool now."

"Yeah," agreed Ryan, "it's cool, but we were doing it first. Yeah, we were talking about blasting into outer space. So much civilian space travel that we though we'd, I mean how difficult can it be, Sandy, to go up there? We travel and tried, and you'll see the explanation on the show."