Regis Philbin Retiring
Posted January 18, 2011 3:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After nearly three decades Regis Philbin will be signing off from “Live” this year.
The animated host announced his retirement plans on “Live With Regis and Kelly” Tuesday morning, in an unusually subtle tone.
“I don’t want to alarm anybody,” he said during the host chat, adding, “This will be my last year on the show.”
Philbin said he grew up in New York watching TV in its early days and never imagined he’d one day sit in front of the camera on a national Manhattan-based show.
“There is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera – especially certain old people!” Philbin, who turns 80 in August, said.
Philbin’s important announcement came after some banter with co-host Kelly Ripa about the Golden Globes and the weather.
The 79-year-old has been working on television since the 1950s, mostly on the local level, and was then available to a national audience after being hired as a sidekick on Joey Bishop’s ABC late show.
He teamed up with Kathie Lee Johnson (later Gifford) in 1985. Their show was syndicated nationally three years later.
Gifford left in 2000 and Ripa took over. Disney-ABC Domestic Television has said the show will continue after Philbin leaves and a new co-host will be named.
Philbin’s departure follows his colleague Larry King, who retired from his show on CNN last month. Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated show is also set to end this year and she’s now heading up her own cable network.
