REGIS PHILBIN- DONE IN BY EGO AND $$$ DEMANDS- not your average "retirement"
In 1994 Regis Philbin left the Upper Eastside and his Park
Avenue apt. which had been his home since he returned to New York from Los
Angeles in the 80’s to begin his morning chat show, syndicated nationally by
Disney/ABC’s Buena Vista division. A
life-long Catholic, he lived near his St. Ignatius church where his daughters
would be married. Footnote: this was the church of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s
funeral as well as Jackie Onassis’ funeral in 1994.
He moved across Central Park to the Upper Westside to a new
condo tower-Millenium Tower, where his famous neighbors have included: Tony
Danza, Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner, Liam Neeson, Alan Alda (Regis’ next
door neighbor on 53rd floor), Julie Andrews, Howard Stern and
others. But more importantly, his new condo was across the street from the ABC
studio where he did “LIVE WITH REGIS & KATHIE LEE”…later to become LIVE
WITH REGIS & KELLY. So he could now sleep late and stumble across the street
to do his show LIVE….and collect his paycheck of roughly $18-$20million per
year…without breaking a sweat chatting for ONE HOUR a day! But this wasn’t
enough—Regis wanted MORE.
I was always a fan of Regis Philbin…something about the
magic chemistry he had with his perky blonde co-hosts who were all young enough
to be his daughters. And then 2 years
ago, he abruptly resigned from his perch co-hosting one of the most popular
morning chat shows! After a tearful on-air goodbye which went on
for weeks, the truth began leaking out. It was all about MONEY. Regis Philbin
was a great actor…greater than anybody realized…he played a nice guy on morning
TV and everybody bought it—but apparently the truth is pretty ugly. He’s a Bronx-born small-minded ego maniac who
believed his own publicity and thought he was the biggest star in the world who
could never be fired.
Apparently, it was time for contract negotiations and Regis told his longtime agent Jim Griffin he wanted
a big increase from the $20million per year he was getting. According to TMZ,
Griffin talked with Disney execs about a new contract for Regis when his
current deal expired and told them Regis’ demands. The Disney/ABC execs made it clear that Regis
would not be getting an increase, in fact he’d be getting a pay CUT, partly
because the show was not performing as well in the ratings and partly because
Regis takes a lot of time off. Regis, who has one of the world’s biggest egos, was
furious at the lowball offer and that was the trigger for his announcement that
he’s leaving the show. He fired Griffin
immediately, who had been his agent for decades. So much for loyalty.
Regis told Kelly Ripa about his decision 15 minutes before
they went on the air…she was stunned and later became very angry because
(reportedly) she felt it showed a total lack of respect for her. Apparently,
the entire production team was angry at Regis because they felt he hurt the
show by “blindsiding” everyone. . The media was immediately full of reports
that “Regis is retiring…” stories which Regis and his P.R. reps immediately
shot down. On shows like Letterman and The View, Regis almost shouted at
interviewers “I’m not retiring! I’m just moving on…!” But the real story, the bottom line: it was
all about MONEY.
Disney’s arguments made sense: so-so ratings, an 80 year old
host who takes a LOT of time off and let’s face it….what else is he going to
do? He literally lives across the street from the studio…he walks across the
street just before show time, chats for an hour and then collects a gigantic
paycheck, which he felt wasn’t enough for his “talents.” Regis had experienced
more than a few health issues over the years and he was closing in on 80 years
old. As we know, TV is all about younger demographics and they were a little
afraid that their senior citizen host could literally “drop dead” on LIVE TV ….and
what would THAT do to their ratings and their “brand” which is a show called
LIVE with…..? So they did a bunch of “farewell shows” for Regis and let him say
goodbye gracefully over a couple months and replaced him with football Hall of
Famer Michael Strahan, and guess what? The ratings have soared…never better in the
show’s history, which reportedly, has made Regis even more furious- partly
because Regis brought Strahan into the show over the years including a pre-taped bit where
he and Strahan are baby-sitting Kelly’s three kids.
www.JimDykesNYC.com
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