After over 40 years, Regis Philbin is retiring from his weekday talk show.

The veteran broadcaster made the announcement on his Tuesday morning's Live with Regis and Kelly, a show he has headed for nearly25 years.

Philbin, 77, said he plans to end the run by the end of the year.

This will be my last year on this show ... but there is a time, there is a time that everything needs to come to an end for certain people on camera, especially certain old people, Philbin said.

The show, now in its 22nd year in national syndication, began as a local morning show in New York in 1983.

Kathie Lee Gifford joined Philbin in 1985 on the show and it debuted three years later nationally as Live with Regis & Kathie Lee.

Gifford left the show in 2000 and Philbin was joined by current co-host Kelly Ripa in 2001.

It's been a long time. It's been 28 years, he continued, and it was the biggest thrill of my life to come back to New York, where I grew up as a kid watching TV in the early days, you know, never even dreaming that I would one day have the ability, or whatever it takes, to get in front of the camera and talk to it.

A choked-up Ripa said Tuesday after Philbin's announcement, I think I can only speak for America and all of us here when I say that it has been a pleasure and a privilege and a dream come true, and I wish I could do something to make you change your mind.

No indication was given as to the future of co-host Ripa.

Philbin was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2006 and was given the Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

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