Regis Philbin says ABC officials told him not to tell his co-workers — including Kelly Ripa — that he was retiring from “Live” until the very day (Jan. 18) he announced his decision on the air.
“I was told by everybody with the ABC structure to do this the morning of my announcement so we all had a meeting,” Philbin tells Tony Potts in a three-part interview airing today and tomorrow on “Access Hollywood“(7:30 p.m./Ch. 4) and “Access Hollywood Live” (11 a.m./Ch. 4).
“And I told them this was it, I was going to leave the show . . . I’m not going to leave right now, it’s going to be the end of the season.”
Philbin says he saw Ripa’s “eyes well up a little bit” at the news — “but it had to be done and by the time I picked her up 30 seconds before 9 she was fine. You know that’s the way it was going to be, but it is a sad occasion because there has been so much time together.”
Potts asks Philbin where he’ll live once he leaves “Live” later this summer or in the fall. “I’m going to stay where I am, I think,” says the Manhattan resident.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do after this, maybe nothing, and that’s all right, too.”
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There are some good quotes leaking out from “Summer of ’86: The Rise and Fall of The New York Mets,” a four-part series airing March 1-4 on MSG following that weeks’ Knicks and Rangers games (around 10 p.m.).
MSG has corralled many of the stars from the famous — some would say infamous — 1986 Mets team, which went on to win the World Series, beating the Red Sox in dramatic fashion after running roughshod over the National League all season long (and winning 108 regular-season games in the process).
Interviews include Wally Backman, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Ray Knight, manager Davey Johnson and Gary Carter.
“We were crazy, there was no question,” says Backman, the team’s second baseman who was just named manager of the Mets Double-A team in Binghamton. “Davey Johnson had grips on us; he knew when to pull the reigns back. We got on his nerves quite often, but Davey just had an act about him, knowing how to handle players. He was a great guy for New York.”
“We were the team that everyone loved to hate and it seemed like the other teams were trying to instigate that, too,” says Carter.
Says Strawberry: “We’re gonna run through your town, we’re gonna get out of there, and we’re gonna go through the next town, live the nightlife . . . we’re gonna play ball every day, but we’re also gonna live the nightlife.”
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“Flashpoint,” the Canadian drama that aired on CBS, is getting a renewed life on ION.
The network has signed a deal to air all existing episodes of “Flashpoint,” which includes up to 18 original episodes currently in production.
(CBS is expected to air seven “Flashpoint” episodes this summer, with 11 remainingepisodes from Season Four airing on ION.)
ION also has the right to continue producing original “Flashpoint” episodes for what would be the show’s fifth season. There’s nothing official on that front, but insiders say ION is expected to produce a Season 5.
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Ratings: The penultimate Season 3 episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” snared 3.4 million viewers Sunday night — its best-ever total viewership number; NBC’s “Harry’s Law” (Kathy Bates), which averaged 11.1 million viewers in its Jan. 17 premiere, held up in Week 2 (10.7 million this past Monday night).
President Obama’s State of the Union Address, meanwhile, averaged nearly 43 million viewers over 11 networks Tuesday night (9-10:15) — down 11 percent from last year’s address and down 18 percent from his 2009 address.
Last, but not least:
* Congrats to Trish Adlesic, the longtime location manager for “Law & Order: SVU,” who’s been nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary, “Gasland,” which she produced . . . Syma Chowdhry is moving from News 12 New Jersey to CBS-owned WWJ-TV in Detroit as morning news anchor for “First Forecast Mornings” . . . Elizabeth Mascali and Dawn Sandomeno (“Plan to Party”) will be on Tuesday’s “Today” show sharing Super Bowl party tips . . . MSG now has an app offering customized ticket alerts, Knicks and Rangers scores/highlights and upcoming concert schedules . . . “Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium,” airs on PBS in March. Joel performed two concerts at Shea in July 2008 . . . LA publicist Wendy Zocks is in town.