'Live!' producer Gelman: Moving forward day by day

NEW YORK (AP) — 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,” which airs in syndication weekdays at 9 a.m. EST in many markets, will feature guest co-hosts Howie Mandel, Peter Facinelli and D.L. Hughley the rest of 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 is key — and not just with Kelly, but with the audience and the staff and the format.”

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

“I’ve been through it from the other side,” noted Ripa, a party to the monthslong dating whirl a dozen years ago, during a phone interview. “I sort of understand how it works, and what it is they’re looking for, and how this process can’t be rushed.”