Finding successor for Regis can’t be rushed

Associated Press

NEW YORK

You can’t hurry love. Nor, according to Michael Gelman, can you hurry up selecting a TV co-host.

A couple of months after 80-year-old Regis Philbin exited “Live! With Regis and Kelly” and took his top billing with him, Kelly Ripa has been welcoming a succession of fill-in co-hosts. A number of them — no one’s saying just who — are auditioning on-the-air to land the job for keeps.

It’s a process that Gelman, the show’s executive producer, calls dating, and, as fans wait for the show to pop the question weeks or months from now, “Live!” is sowing its wild oats. (“Live! With Kelly” had scheduled guest co-hosts Howie Mandel, Peter Facinelli and D.L. Hughley this week).

“We’ve just scratched the surface of people out there,” Gelman says, adding, “We have enjoyed a lot of people who have already co-hosted, and we’re bringing a bunch of them back for more ‘dates.’”

That first batch of callbacks will include Jerry O’Connell, Dana Carvey, Josh Groban, Seth Meyers and Michael Strahan.

“But I’m not saying there’s a short list,” insists Gelman. “Every day we come up with new ideas, and we get new revelations about who the new host should or shouldn’t be. The chemistry [with Kelly, the audience and the format] is key.”

In other words: Don’t bother even asking how much longer this will take.

The new hire must click with Ripa in the host chat, the morning set-piece where the co-hosts talk about what’s going on out in the world and in their personal lives. It’s deceptively skilled performance art, and an impromptu signature of the show.