Regis Philbin announced on his show Tuesday that will be retiring from television at the end of this year.
The co-host of Live with Regis & Kelly has been on television for more than forty years. Twenty-three of those years has been taken with co-hosting his hit morning show.
Live with Regis & Kelly began as a local New York morning show in 1983 with Philbin as host. Kathie Lee Gifford joined in 1985 and it hit the airwaves nationally as Live with Regis And Kathie Lee three years later. In 2000, Gifford left and in 2001 current co-host Kelly Ripa joined and the name changed.
Ripa was visible emotional as she commented on the announcement, “I think I can only speak for America and all of us here when I say that it has been a pleasure and a privilege and a dream come true, and I wish I could do something to make you change your mind.”
Regis won two Daytime Emmys in 2001 for Outstanding Game Show Host (Who Wants to be a Millionaire) and Outstanding Talk Show Host (Live with Regis and Kelly). He was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters in 2006 and received the Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Philbin will be 80 in August.