Kelly Ripa clashed with a producer backstage at Live With Kelly and Mark over the day’s topic before confronting him about the disagreement on air.
At the start of Tuesday morning’s broadcast, Ripa, 56, quickly told viewers that she had been debating producer Michael Gelman over what she was expected to discuss.
The dispute centered on Dictionary.com naming “maxxing” its 2026 Word of the Year.
Ripa said she had not wanted to cover the term because she doubted the audience would be interested, sparking a heated exchange with Gelman behind the scenes.
“You want to hear about the Word of the Year, everybody?” she asked the audience, before revealing, “We had a big fight backstage. Oh, we had quite a fight.”
She then identified the winning term as “maxxing,” adding, “Wouldn’t have been my word. I wouldn’t have picked this word.”
After noticing that several audience members appeared unfamiliar with the expression, Ripa turned her attention back to Gelman.
She said she had resisted mentioning the term because she assumed few people watching would know what it meant.
Kelly Ripa clashed with a producer backstage at Live With Kelly and Mark over the day’s topic before confronting him about the disagreement on air
At the start of Tuesday morning’s broadcast, Ripa, 56, told viewers she had been debating producer Michael Gelman over what she was expected to discuss
“Maxxing, like ‘looksmaxxing.’ Have you heard of this? Looksmaxxing? Great, our audience has not heard of it, Gelman. Just like I said they wouldn’t,” she said.
Ripa said Gelman had argued that maxxing was widely understood because “lots of words have maxxing attached to them.” She remained unconvinced.
“I just watched everybody check out [after I brought up maxxing],” she continued, sarcastically adding, “I just watched an entire audience of people go to sleepmaxxing.”
According to Dictionary.com, “maxxing” refers to pursuing an activity to the fullest or optimizing a particular part of one’s life. The trend became particularly prominent online throughout 2026.
The term can stand alone or be combined with other words to create new expressions.
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One of the best-known examples is looksmaxxing, an online culture largely involving young men who use different methods to enhance their physical appearance and facial structure. The trend has been promoted in part by controversial influencer Clavicular.
Dictionary.com announced in late October that “maxxing” had been selected as its 2026 Word of the Year, prompting a strong response across social media.
“Normalizing incel lingo and for why?” one person wrote on X after the announcement.
Ripa said she had been asked to discuss Dictionary.com naming “maxxing” its 2026 Word of the Year
She said she had not wanted to cover the term because she doubted the audience would be interested, leading to a heated disagreement with the producer
Maxxing can stand alone or be combined with other words. One of the best-known examples is looksmaxxing, an online culture promoted in part by controversial influencer Clavicular (pictured) and largely involving young men seeking to enhance their physical appearance and facial structure
“[This is] a sign of the coming apocalypse,” another person joked.
“We are in hell,” someone else wrote, while a fourth user agreed: “We are doomed.”
“Cringe,” read another post. A sixth person wrote: “Nuke the whole generation.”
Other users welcomed the choice, arguing that the term was a fitting reflection of the year.
“Maxxing being named Word of the Year is so on brand for the internet this year,” one person wrote.
“We really made maxxing a whole dictionary entry,” another user posted proudly.
“Good on Dictionary.com for acknowledging what’s happening,” a different person wrote.
“Word of the Year being maxxing is the most 2026 thing ever,” read another post.
Other contenders for the title included “affordability,” “data center,” “odyssey” and “unc.”
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