LIVE WITH KELLY AND MICHAEL's 27th Season Kicks Off Next Week

"LIVE with Kelly and Michael" heads into its 27th season on September 1, 2014, kicking off a month filled with top-notch guests and great music.

As the new season begins, "LIVE" is coming off of a banner year for the Emmy-winning franchise. The show finished the 2013-14 season as the No. 2 Syndicated talker in Households, posting an 8% gain over the prior year, and its highest Household rating in 6 years. The year-to-year growth for "LIVE" is even more impressive considering its year-ago averages include the high-rated first weeks of Kelly and Michael as a new team.

A stellar lineup of guests will mark the show's first weeks of the new season, including DENZEL WASHINGTON, BEN AFFLECK, KEVIN KLINE, LIAM NEESON and TINA FEY. Also stopping by will be LIEV SCHREIBER, OCTAVIA SPENCER, RAY LIOTTA, MANDY PATINKIN and ASHLEY JUDD, as well as KERRY WASHINGTON, JULIANNA MARGULIES, JAMES SPADER and MARK HARMON.

LIVE is known for musical performances by some of the industry's top artists, and in September "LIVE's" audience will enjoy rock band COUNTING CROWS, the dynamic duo of NICK CARTER and JORDAN KNIGHT, singer-songwriters BRYAN ADAMS and MELISSA ETHERIDGE, and indie pop band AJR.

"LIVE with Kelly and Michael" is distributed in national syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Produced by WABC-TV in New York and executive produced by Michael Gelman, "LIVE" airs in more than 200 markets across the U.S.