}Live with Regis and Kelly is a syndicated American television talk show, hosted by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. Before 2001, the show was known as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, with Kathie Lee Gifford co-hosting with Philbin. Live's mixture of A-list guests and the interaction between co-hosts have made it one of daytime's most popular and venerable talk shows. The program has aired for 23 years in its home market of New York City in its current format, and more than 17 years nationwide.

History

The show began in 1983 as The Morning Show, a local New York program on WABC-TV with Philbin and Cyndy Garvey as co-hosts. They were previously co-hosts on a similar program on KABC-TV in Los Angeles, A.M. Los Angeles. In 1985, Gifford, then known as Kathie Lee Johnson, replaced Garvey (and her successor, Ann Abernathy), and the show took off. In 1988 Buena Vista Television (which would eventually become co-owned with WABC, as ABC, WABC's parent, would be acquired by Disney, BVTV's parent, in 1996) began syndicating the show nationwide. The title was also renamed to Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Viewers embraced the show, making it a popular staple of daytime TV.

In mid-2000, Gifford decided to leave the show amidst several personal scandals. Philbin wanted to continue with the show and also wanted to search for another co-host. The show was renamed Live with Regis, as Philbin hosted alone or with varying guest hosts including everybody from the cast of Survivor to The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. During this time, Philbin won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, and was also hosting ABC's enormously popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. During "auditions" for co-hosts, Ripa became a favorite and front-runner, especially after a segment where psychic Char Margolis correctly predicted that Ripa was pregnant. Ripa had only told a small circle of friends about the pregnancy, and not ABC (as she was an actress on All My Children at the time) or the public. Ripa was named the permanent co-host on February 5, 2001, and began her duties on February 12. Since Ripa took over, the show's ratings have increased to much higher levels, according to E!.

The show is still owned and produced by WABC-TV, and shares the same studio as WABC's venerable Eyewitness News broadcast. Not seen in the nationally syndicated show is a WABC Eyewitness News update, which is produced from its newsroom, as are all of its updates during Good Morning America due to the shared studio situation.

Production

Kelly Ripa tends to Regis Philbin's splinter in the improvised first segment of the show.

Live, as implied in its name, is broadcast live weekdays at 9 a.m. ET, except for some special editions or reruns. (Instead of true reruns, Live will usually air previously aired celebrity guest and other non-"host chat" segments and record a new "host chat" segment to accommodate ongoing trivia contests.) It is aired throughout the United States and Canada usually at 9 a.m or 10 a.m. local time; this implies that many East Coast affiliates receive the live feed of the show.

The show features bantering between Regis and Kelly, phone-in contests, and celebrity guests. It is produced by Michael Gelman. The first 15 minutes, known as "Host Chat," is known for being improvised, often involving Gelman somehow. Other foils for the co-hosts have included WABC-TV program director Art Moore, who supervises Live; WABC-TV weatherman Sam Champion, and other program staffers.

The theme and other music for the show was composed by award winning composer Shelly Palmer, who also did the current "Channel 7 Late Movie" theme for WABC.

Live has consistently been rated among the top three syndicated daytime talk shows in the US, behind The Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil.

The Live series has fared so well that it inspired similarly formatted talk shows. Some have been successful (The View), while others have had limited or no success (The Tony Danza Show, Living It Up! With Ali & Jack). The now cancelled British television series Today with Des and Mel was based on Regis and Kelly.

List of guest co-hosts

Most episodes of Live will feature both named co-hosts. But when either co-host needs a break, or has duties that prevent him or her from hosting the show, a celebrity guest will fill in as the other host, usually (but not always) of the same gender as the missing host.

Filled in for either Regis or Kelly/Kathie Lee

*Whoopi Goldberg
*Donald Trump

Filled in for Regis

*Mark Consuelos, Kelly's husband
*Anderson Cooper
*Carson Kressly
*Thomas Gibson¹*Jeff Gordon
*Bryant Gumbel
*Grant Hill
*D. L. Hughley
*Randy Jackson
*Jimmy Kimmel
*Emeril Lagasse
*Nathan Lane
*Howie Mandel
*Ted McGinley
*Jeff Probst
*Geraldo Rivera
*Pat Sajak
*Ryan Seacrest
*Vince Vaughn

Filled in for Kelly or Kathie Lee

*Jillian Barberie, one of the women considered a potential replacement for Kathie Lee.
*Susan Lucci
*Dolly Parton
*Joy Philbin, Regis's wife
*Joan Rivers¹*Sarah Ferguson The Duchess of York

Notes:

¹ Rivers and Gibson hosted together when Philbin and Ripa were both unable to host the show. This has occurred only once in the history of Live.

External links

* Official website for Live with Regis and Kelly

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