Regis Retires

Stepping Down From 'LIVE! With Regis and Kelly'

Veteran broadcaster Regis Philbin announced today that he will be retiring from the weekday talk show "LIVE! with Regis and Kelly" after nearly 25 years.

ABCnews.com reports Philbin broke the news this morning at the top of his show. He confirmed that though he's departing, the "LIVE" franchise will continue. The Disney-ABC Television Group plans to name a new personality to join Kelly Ripa, who has co-hosted the show for nearly ten years.

Philbin first got his own TV show in 1961, and has appeared on dozens of programs since, including a short lived stint as host of “The Tonight Show” (then  called the “Westinghouse Tonight Show from Hollywood”) in 1964.

Philbin gained his first national exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishop's sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show on television (1967–1969). In a Johnny Carson-Ed McMahon vein, Bishop would playfully tease Philbin and Philbin would take the barbs in stride.

Philbin, however, got his feelings wounded when he learned from the network grapevine that ABC executives were dissatisfied with his work. When The Joey Bishop Show was canceled, Bishop walked off the show on the air unannounced, leaving Philbin to successfully carry the show on his own.

Philbin has been plagued in recent years by health issues.  On March 12, 2007, during an episode of Live with Regis and Kelly, Philbin announced that he would undergo triple bypass surgery later that week, as he had experienced chest pains and shortness of breath the previous two weeks and doctors found plaque in his arteries. He said, "Darn it, I don't want to do it.

Nobody wants to do it, I guess. But they tell me. And I had a second opinion, I did all those things [tests for heart disease], and so they're [the doctors] are all in agreement that it should be the bypass. And so that's what I'm going to do." In addition, Philbin talked with David Letterman, for whom Philbin substituted for on the Late Show with David Letterman during Letterman's own quintuple bypass surgery. Philbin's heart surgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center on March 14 was successful and he returned to the show on April 26. He previously had an angioplasty in 1993.

On November 24, 2009, it was announced that Philbin intended to take some time off from Live with Regis and Kelly to undergo hip-replacement surgery. "I'm allowed to announce I'm going into hip surgery. I'm going to have my hip replaced. I've been limping around here. It's really painful," he said on Live, which was broadcasting from Las Vegas that week. The surgery was performed on December 1. Philbin was expected to take four to six weeks off to recover. It was announced that Regis would return on Monday, January 4, 2010 to his regular hosting duties to kick off the new year.

On May 14, 2010, it was announced that Philbin would undergo surgery to have a blood clot removed from his calf. He returned the next day.