Regis Philbin is leaving the daytime talk show world later this year and he admitted to Access Hollywood’s Tony Potts he has one regret — there was one guest he was never able to get on “Live! with Regis and Kelly.”
“The unthinkable would be Barbra Streisand,” Regis told Tony, in a new interview set to air Thursday on Access Hollywood.
Regis revealed that Barbra is actually a fan of his work on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?,” but he just hasn’t been able to get her in the “Live!” studio.
“When I was doing the ‘Millionaire’ show, one night we went to see her at [Madison Square Garden] and went backstage to visit her and my God, she spent about 20 minutes just talking about that show and me. And she was very, very sweet, but she would be an untouchable [guest].”
While he hasn’t had Barbra in a “Live!” seat yet, there’s still time. Regis revealed he won’t be departing from his “Live!” chair until the fall.
“We’re talking about November,” he said of his departure date. “If I were to leave at the end of the year, somewhere deep in August, everybody is in the Hamptons!”
It was just last week that Regis made the announcement he was departing “Live!,” after almost three decades, but he told Tony that he definitely isn’t using the “R” word.
“I am not retiring,” Regis told Tony. “Everybody considers me leaving that show to be retiring in this business and that’s not the case.”
In Tony’s sit down with Regis, which took place in Miami, Fla., where the TV host received the Brandon Tartikoff Award for his legacy in television at the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) conference, which Tony hosted, Regis opened up about the reaction from Kelly Ripa and “Live!‘s” executive producer Michael Seth Gelman.
“I saw Kelly’s eyes well up a little bit and Gelman got a little white,” Regis laughed. “But it had to be done and by the time I picked her up 30 seconds before 9 [AM], she was fine. You know that’s the way it was going to be, but it is a sad occasion because there has been so much time together.”
For more of Tony’s interview with Regis, tune into Access Hollywood on Thursday, January 27.
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.