Philbin, who died Friday at 88, was, in many respects, the consummate broadcaster. He could hold an audience’s attention — as he did for more hours than anyone in the history of American television — without singing, acting or telling jokes.
Philbin honed that craft in local television, at a time when programs like the ones he hosted in San Diego, Los Angeles and New York could be major money makers for network stations.
He parlayed that into a national stage, on the long-running «Live» show in syndication and later «Who Wants to be a Millionaire,» a gameshow that towered over the TV ratings in the US (having already done so in the UK), representing a kind of crowning achievement to his career. Given the show’s importance to ABC, Philbin was fond of telling people with his customary enthusiasm, «Regis saved the network!»
Of course, that career lingered even after «Millionaire» faded and disappeared from primetime.
