Regis Philbin ‘Approached’ By ‘Live! With Kelly & Michael’ To Return To Kelly Ripa’s Side [Report]

Could Regis Philbin be returning to Kelly Ripa’s side to reprise Live! with Regis and Kelly?

According to a new report by Page Six, producers of Live! with Kelly and Michael have allegedly reached out to Regis to suggest he make a triumphant return to the morning show after Michael Strahan departs the show on May 13.

“[Regis has] already been approached. It’s been a bunch of phone tag back and forth. It’s in the very early stages,” a source told Page Six this week, noting that Philbin and wife Joy were allegedly spotted having lunch with network executive Henry Schleiff, who proposed a campaign to get Regis back with Kelly.

“Regis gave his opinion about the Michael and Kelly rift and Henry proposed to spearhead a ‘bring Regis back’ campaign called #brb,” Page Six‘s insider alleged. “Joy was in support of it. They all seemed game for trying to get him back. I think he’d have to look at the deal, but he was into it. He was totally positive.”

Regis Philbin famously sat alongside Kelly Ripa on the ABC morning talk show for 10 years between 2001 and 2011 after hosting the show from the very first episode way back in 1983.

Reports that Regis could be returning come just days after Philbin spoke out about the drama surrounding Live! with Kelly and Michael with TMZ, where he played coy when paparazzi quizzed him about a possible return to the series.

“Five years ago I left, I don’t know anybody!” Regis joked, noting that he “hasn’t spoken to anybody” since Michael Strahan shockingly announced he was leaving the show for a full-time gig on Good Morning America.

But while Regis may not have spoken to Kelly, he did appear to have his former co-hosts back amid the recent drama.

“They should’ve told her,” Philbin told awaiting paparazzi, referring to Kelly’s drama with both Michael and the show’s executives who “blindsided” her with the news that Michael would be leaving the series.

Regis also spoke out about Michael when paparazzi spotted him out and about in New York just days after Strahan’s shocking news broke, where he admitted that he thought Michael was “great” and “a pro” on what he described as being “our show.”

Regis’s remarks about Kelly and Michael come just weeks after the former co-host admitted that he hasn’t actually spoken to Kelly Ripa since he quit in 2011. Speaking with Hoda Kotb on her Sirius XM radio show in March, 2015, Regis confessed that despite both living in New York, he doesn’t see or speak Kelly, his co-host of 10 years.

“I haven’t seen her, I don’t see her,” Regis told Kotb last year. “She lived downtown, and now I hear she’s on the East Side and … you know.”

But while Page Six is reporting that Regis is allegedly “positive” about a possible return, reports that Regis Philbin could be returning to Kelly Ripa’s side when Michael Strahan exits the show in just two weeks follow claims that the morning talk show will actually be having another on-air search for a co-host.

In a statement issued to E! News last month, an ABC spokesperson revealed that Strahan’s early exit from the series would allow producers of the show to search for Kelly’s new co-host on-air in the same style that saw Michael take over from Regis in 2012.

“Michael’s last day on [Live! with Kelly and Michael] will be on Friday, May 13, which not only gives the show the chance to have a nice send-off for him during the May book, but to also immediately begin the on-air search for a new co-host,” a spokesperson revealed to E! News.

“This plan also allows GMA to start integrating Michael into the show more often this summer before his full-time start in September,” the show representative added.

Do you think Regis Philbin should return to Live! alongside Kelly Ripa?

[Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images]