Art Moore, WABC’s vice president of programming, is retiring after 36 years working on Live! and 53 at the network. Hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos gave Moore his flowers on air Friday morning — and so did the audience, who gave him a rousing round of applause and a standing ovation.

Live with Kelly and Mark may have just kicked off Season 37 on Sept. 3, but the team behind the beloved syndicated morning show is preparing to lose a network fixture: WABC-TV’s Vice President of Programming and Live‘s executive in charge of production,

Live with Kelly and Mark' programming director Art Moore, who also worked in Philadelphia at 6ABC, is retiring after more than half a century in show biz.

It's not uncommon for the teams working on long-running TV shows to become like family over the years—which is why Friday, Sept. 20, was a particularly difficult day for LIVE With Kelly and Mark.

Longtime WABC-TV exec and Live With Kelly and Mark staple Art Moore, who announced his impending retirement last May after 53 years with the network, bid farewell on Friday’s telecast. During an on-air exit interview conducted by Live hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos (watch above),

It’s rare for an episode of Live with Kelly and Mark to feel somber, but on this morning’s show, Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos and the rest of the crew of the talk show spent most of the episode giving an emotional farewell to longtime ABC executive Art Moore,