Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (pronounced /ˈriːdʒɨs ˈfɪlbɨn/; born August 25, 1931) is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called (somewhat tongue-in-cheek and alternately attributed to James Brown) "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera. His trademarks include his excited manner, his New York Bronx accent, his wit, and irreverent ad-libs. He is most widely known for Live! with Regis and Kelly (which rose to fame as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Million Dollar Password, and for hosting the first season of America's Got Talent.

After Philbin's contract with Live! with Regis and Kelly was not renewed, his final episode of Live aired on November 18, 2011.

Talk show career
In 1964, Philbin took over hosting the late night Westinghouse Tonight Show from Hollywood when Steve Allen left the show. The audience did not accept Philbin as a replacement for the zany antics of Allen and the appearance lasted only a few weeks due to dismal ratings. Johnny Carson was too strong in the ratings for the same time slot. Carson was an inspiration for Philbin, according to his own words (PBS, 2008, Pioneers of Television).

From 1975–81, he co-hosted A.M. Los Angeles, a local morning talk show on KABC-TV, first with Sarah Purcell (1975 to 1978), then with Cyndy Garvey (1978 to 1981). Philbin's presence brought the show from the bottom of the local ratings to No. 1.

During the early 1970s, Philbin also commuted each weekend to St. Louis, where he filmed Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis on KMOX-TV (now KMOV).

A 1978 book called The Great 1960s Quiz, authored by Dan Carlinksy (pub. Harper & Row), asked, "Who was Regis Philbin?" (p. 7) The answer was "Joey Bishop's sidekick on his late night show." (p. 124) Philbin's seemingly "trivial" national media presence would soon be revived.

In 1981, Philbin and Mary Hart co-hosted a national morning variety series for NBC. The show lasted 18 weeks.

Garvey left Los Angeles and moved to New York City in 1982. Philbin rejoined Garvey on The Morning Show, on WABC-TV. At the time, the 9 am time slot for WABC suffered from low Nielsen ratings due in part to its competition; WNBC-TV was airing Donahue while WCBS-TV countered with a game show block featuring The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough. After Garvey left again, and Ann Abernathy briefly shared co-hosting duties, Philbin was paired with Kathie Lee Johnson (later Gifford), in June 1985, and ratings improved significantly. The show became nationally syndicated in September 1988 as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee and the success continued. The program would replace A.M. Los Angeles upon its cancellation in 1991 and was eventually picked up by all of the ABC owned-and-operated stations except for WLS in Chicago, which aired The Oprah Winfrey Show in that timeslot and had done so since the show's debut as A.M. Chicago. (Live is carried by the local WGN feed in Chicago; it is not fed to WGN America.)

In the 1980s, Philbin hosted Lifestyles with Regis Philbin on the Lifetime television network.

When Gifford departed in 2000, the show was temporarily named Live! with Regis. Philbin would always have a guest co-host until an official replacement was found. Philbin won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2001. Kelly Ripa was chosen as the permanent co-host in 2001, and the show was renamed Live! with Regis and Kelly. Their chemistry proved to be successful as the show continued to enjoy high ratings.

Philbin set a Guinness World Record for "Most Hours on Camera" on his August 20, 2004, Live show (replacing Hugh Downs), which gave him a total of 15,188 hours on television. On the September 14, 2006, episode of Live, his record was updated to 15,662 hours. His on-air time continues to accumulate.

It was announced on the September 17, 2009, episode of Live with Regis and Kelly during their World Record Breaker week, that Philbin's Guinness Book World Record for most time spent in front of a TV camera had reached 16,343 hours.

In 2008, Philbin's contract with ABC was renewed through to 2011. Under this new contract, Philbin reportedly earns more than US$21 million, but the terms and conditions significantly restrict his ability to negotiate deals with networks other than ABC. However, he received a similar contract with CBS (due to Philbin's hosting of Million Dollar Password).

Game show career
Philbin was also a game show host. He hosted The Neighbors, a short-lived game show on ABC in late-1975/early-1976. The premise of the show had two female contestants guessing which of her three women neighbors said gossipy things about her. In 1976, he was a "field reporter" for ABC's Almost Anything Goes, an American adaptation of the British game show, It's a Knockout. Both shows suffered from poor ratings.

Philbin's more recent game show hosting duties have been much more successful. He was the original host of the U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, another ABC game show that had its roots in Britain. Millionaire was a big ratings success in its 1999 debut, when it was intended as an occasional special series. ABC aired Millionaire as a regular series with frequent episodes, but its viewership slowly declined. After Millionaire was canceled, it was retooled in 2002 as a syndicated series hosted by Meredith Vieira, which continues today. ABC brought back Millionaire in 2004 with Philbin, retitled Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire, a related series that was aired on a more limited basis. Philbin had appeared in 11 episodes of a special edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which started on August 9, 2009, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the show. He also was a celebrity contestant in this version. Millionaire, in its syndicated format, uses guest hosts for selected weeks during the season and Philbin also hosted a week of episodes that aired in November 2009, coinciding with his 2009 surgery.

Philbin won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2001, as host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

In November 2005, ABC announced that Philbin would host the network's revival of This Is Your Life. In August 2006, he reported that his option on the contract for the show had lapsed and he declined to renew it.

Philbin hosted the first season of America's Got Talent, a Simon Cowell-produced amateur talent search show on NBC, during the summer of 2006. He flew between New York City and Los Angeles many times during that time period, in order to participate in both Live with Regis and Kelly and AGT. His difficulty with commuting between the two cities was an issue, as were his health problems from the past. Therefore, he was replaced in 2007 by talk show host Jerry Springer. In regards to filling Philbin's spot, Springer noted that "no one fills in for Regis. He's the best there ever was at this so you pay homage to him."

However, Philbin's affiliation with FremantleMedia started to develop. He hosted a revival of the Password franchise entitled Million Dollar Password, which premiered June 1, 2008, and ended in 2009.