Mark Consuelos mistaken for ex-‘Live’ host Regis Philbin — who died in 2020
A classic case of mistaken identity.
“Live With Kelly and Mark” co-host Mark Consuelos revealed during the opening of Tuesday’s episode that the night before, an excited New York City woman mistook him for former “Live” host Regis Philbin — even though he died in 2020.
The incident occurred when he attended Monday’s Knicks game with pals Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and John McEnroe.
“We ate in the owners’ lounge,” the “Riverdale” alum, 52, told the audience along with his wife and co-host, Kelly Ripa. “This lady thought I was Regis. She goes, ‘You’re Regis!’ I said, ‘I’m not! I’m not. But, let’s talk!'”
Ripa, 53, joined in on the joke, saying that she felt the “same” about the comparison.
Ripa co-hosted “Live” with the late “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” emcee from 2001 to 2011 before he announced his retirement and was replaced with former NFL star Michael Strahan.
Laughing with the audience, Consuelos said that he understood where the bamboozled woman was coming from.
“She was like, ‘He’s very muscular!’ And I go, ‘That’s me,'” he went on. He added to the mystery woman, “If you’re watching, hi!”
Philbin died of a heart attack due to coronary artery disease at the age of 88.
While Ripa and Consuelos’ dynamic has always been warm and friendly — and sometimes bordered on nauseating and uncomfortable — her relationship with Philbin started off on the wrong foot and was overshadowed by rumors of several off-screen feuds.
In Ripa’s 2022 tell-all memoir, “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories,” the host and actress revealed that she seemed to upset Philbin on her very first day.
“I came with hair and makeup,” she told People magazine during her book tour. “It was not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with.”
The TV personality expounded that the move seemed to greatly upset Philbin when he and the show’s executive producer, Michael Gelman, greeted her at the door.
“Uh-oh, Gelman, it’s got an entourage,” Ripa recalled Philbin stating, adding that the comment made her “feel horrible.”
“He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on,” she said.
Ripa further stated that she was given a janitorial closet when she first arrived to work on the show, and “it took years to earn my place there and earn things that are routinely given to the men I worked with.”
“I don’t want to feel like I’m slamming anyone or that I’m being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk,” she told the outlet.
