Philbin with his recent autobiography, "How I Got This Way."
The truth is, Reege will never really leave TV. Philbin, the former co-host of Live! With Regis and Kelly, is moving onto late-night pastures after his Nov. 18 talk show departure.
According to the New York Post, Regis Philbin is planning to take on primetime television with a still-in-development talent show.
Philbin, who hosted the first season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, has formed RAF Productions with former Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee director Barry Glazer, City Island executive producer Edward Walson and Writers’ Guild Awards executive producer Cort Cassidy.
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“We’re contemplating a show that is sort of a talent show, but it involves the whole family,” Philbin told Page Six, adding, “a family competition, which is something new in our business. It’s going to be on prime time when it happens.”
The series may resemble a variety show, a phrase Philbin was hesitant to use. “In our business you don’t want to say variety because it’s frowned upon now, but something with people who are performing.”
The new venture proves that the longtime television host still has some good years left in him. Philbin, 80, insisted his Live! leave did not mean retirement, nor was there any bad blood with ABC.
“It wasn’t that ABC didn’t try to negotiate with me,” he told Page Six. “As it happens in this business, sometimes you don’t really like the terms so you just walk away with that in mind.”