Jimmy Kimmel Pays Heartfelt Regis Philbin Tribute After Emmy Win

Jimmy Kimmel walked away with a trophy at Sunday night’s (September 7) 77th Creative Arts Emmy Awards and used his acceptance speech to thank the late Regis Philbin.

The late-night host won the Emmy for Outstanding Host For A Game Show for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, beating out Jeopardy!‘s Ken Jennings, Pop Culture Jeopardy!‘s Colin Jost, Celebrity Family Feud‘s Steve Harvey, and Press Your Luck‘s Elizabeth Banks.

After collecting the trophy, Kimmel praised Millionaire‘s original host, Philbin, who won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host back in 2001. Kimmel said Philbin, who died in 2020, was “watching over all of us right now,” per Deadline.

He spoke more about Philbin backstage, telling the press, “Regis was the best at this. I don’t think the show would still be on the air if Regis hadn’t hosted it to start with. He was such an unusual pick at the time. I don’t think people remember that because it became such a big sensation, not just a hit, but like a cultural phenomenon. So people didn’t think about how Regis was a very unlikely choice.”

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host went on to say how Philbin was “always nice” to him, adding, “It’s exciting to have this [award] and to know that he has this same Emmy somewhere in his family’s collection as well.”

During his speech, Kimmel also thanked the show’s executive producer, Michael Davies, who was also the producer on Win Ben Stein’s Money, the late 1990s Comedy Central game show that won Kimmel his first Emmy.

In recent years, Kimmel won Emmys for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for his Live in Front of a Studio Audience collaborations with Norman Lear. The specials saw recreations of some of Lear’s classic sitcoms, including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Facts of Life, and Diff’rent Strokes.

When asked backstage whether he would do another Live in Front of a Studio Audience, Kimmel suggested it wouldn’t feel right to do it without Lear, who passed away in December 2023. “It would be too emotional to do it without Norman Lear, you know, I don’t know if my heart could take it,” he shared.

Kimmel, who signed a three-year deal with ABC in 2022, was also asked about his future in late-night and whether he’s thought about retirement.

“I’m not prepared to answer that question,” he responded. “It’s something I think about a lot. Things have changed a lot over the last few years, over the last nine years, I guess, and each day is a new adventure, and I kind of take them as they come.”

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Wednesdays, 8/7c, ABC, next day on Hulu

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider.