Seth Meyers fills in for Regis: Why the political rabble-rouser would make a great permanent replacement

With Regis Philbin retiring after more than 25 years of Live! With Regis & [Blonde whose name begins with the letter ‘K’] sometime this fall, it’s about time to start vetting candidates to replace the TV host who has logged more hours in front of the camera than any other human. It’s a tough spot to fill (even though we’ve offered plenty of ideas), but if his guest turn on the show Monday was any indication, Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update host Seth Meyers could be a perfect replacement.

On yesterday’s Live! With Regis & Kelly, Meyers took to the show’s casual charm as naturally as Regis takes to banking commercials. That might be hard to imagine given that anyone who even occasionally tunes into the current Weekend Update knows that Meyers doesn’t try to hide his liberal-leaning political barbs, which make up a good portion of his jokes. But in the 15-minute dialogue that opened the show, Meyers proved just as comfortable and funny trading stories with Kelly Ripa about their weekend activities and commenting on the kind of near-disaster-with-a-miraculous-ending news stories daytime TV feeds on.

In fact, the only time things got weird was when Ripa kept grilling Meyers — who spent the weekend in Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party — on whether he had gone to any “gentlemen’s clubs” or otherwise encountered toplessness (which he denied). Even his one political jibe (at Donald Trump’s expense) was pretty tame. You can watch the video here:

Of course, this was just one show: It’s fair to assume that Meyers’ affably cynical jokes would inevitably find their way onto the morning program. And his sense of humor could ruffle a few too many morning feathers.

Did you think Meyers did a good job fill(bin)ing in for Regis? Would you be happy to trade Regis’ explosive Bronx-accent for Meyers’ laid-back, wry wit? Or who else might be better suited to take over the daytime TV staple?

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