Regis Philbin announced this morning that he will be leaving Live! With Regis and Kelly after the current season closes at the end of the summer.
"This will be my last year on this show," Reege, 79, said live on air. “There is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera, especially certain old people."
Philbin’s been on air for the past 40 years, spending 28 of them with some incarnation of Live!
His cohost Kelly Ripa fought back tears when responding to 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," she said.
The Live! franchise will continue after Regis’ departure, with a new cohost in his chair.
It will be hard to imagine the morning show without him, however. Regis really has been consistently entertaining with his sweet sense of humour for years in the Live! setting.
Daytime TV sure will look different next year, with Oprah and Reege taking their daytime bows, and new entries from Anderson Cooper, Jenny McCarthy and Rosie O’Donnell.