Quinta Brunson moved to tears after family surprises her in “Live” studio audience: 'I’m always just crying on TV'
Brunson's family traveled from Philadelphia to surprise her during an interview with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
Quinta Brunson got an emotional surprise from her family during a live interview on morning television.
As Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos welcomed the Abbott Elementary creator-star to discuss season 4 of her Emmy-winning sitcom, she was moved to tears as she walked out to set and unexpectedly spotted multiple members of her family sitting amid the Live With Kelly & Mark studio audience.
Shortly after Brunson emerged from the backstage area, cameras captured her interacting with the crowd — and her eventual shock over recognizing her family waiting in the front row.
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Quinta Brunson and family on 'Live With Kelly & Mark'Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Later, Brunson spotted more family members sitting in a different section of the audience, and she was clearly overwhelmed in the moment.
"I just saw basically I have family here. Oh my God!" the 34-year-old said, gathering herself as tears welled in her eyes. "That's my literal, like, family. My sisters, my niece, and my cousin. I don't want to cry on TV. That's crazy."
Brunson estimated to Ripa and Consuelos that her family must've traveled from her hometown of Philadelphia to surprise her, but that she "didn't know" they'd planned the moment.
"I'm always just crying on TV. I'm so tired of it," she joked. "Okay, make sure nobody else is here!"
The sweet moment came one day ahead of Abbott Elementary's season 4 premiere, which producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker recently previewed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, in which they teased developments on the growing relationship between Brunson's Janine and Tyler James Williams' Gregory.
"We hope for it to go through the course of any normal relationship and to hit the ups and downs. We tend to approach everything from character. A lot of people thought we had this master plan for that, and 'In this season and this episode, the two will kiss and blah, blah, blah,'" Halpern said. "But we've always tried to approach it from a character standpoint of 'When are they going to be in a place where it would happen and when are they going to be in a place where things might get tough?' This is all to say that we like to keep everything open in terms of character growth, but no, we don't foresee at the moment that we're going to pull the rug out from anybody."
Live With Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication. Check your local listings for showtimes in your area. Abbott Elementary returns Wednesday, Oct. 9 on ABC.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
