This Departure Means A Lot

Regis Philbin hosted his last "Live" show this morning. With all the commotion surrounding his departure after 28 years, I think Regis knew it was time to move on as executives didn't exactly bend over backwards to keep him on board. We may never know the real story of what appeared to be a hasty decision on his part, but daytime TV is evolving. This loss of an icon in many morning routines marked a milestone in that change the same way ABC's cancellation of two long-running soaps reflected a simple fact: the audience is aging and fragmenting. The age of the average "Live with Regis & Kelly" viewer is 60. "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" haven't exactly been courting the youth movement either. True, a huge chunk of the available daytime viewership is older, but corporate decision makers would rather risk shaking loose some of the 55+ crowd and have a greater percentage of younger women 25-54 (or 25-49) even if it means a smaller overall rating. Radio has done the same thing, which explains why Frank Sinatra disappeared from the airwaves by the 1990s, fifties music soon followed and sixties songs are now few and far between.

Regis still leaves on a high note, much like Oprah and Seinfeld. On a local level, Regis was a role model to me in co-hosting a morning radio show. So many people would tell me how WBMW's Wakeup Club with Glenn & Rebecca had good chemistry. Even our consultant admitted that, but in the last year of Glenn & Rebecca the only positive comment I ever got from him was about my Regis impression. I sensed something was up, but Rebecca and I knew that we were a team and it wouldn't be the same as a one-person show or one where two people didn't have fun interacting with each other. Regis was the master of that genre. He was a huge inspiration for some of the best radio I ever did.