Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin’s 9/11 Broadcast: A Moment That Still Resonates 25 Years Later
Twenty-five years later, the footage of Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin reacting to the September 11 attacks remains a deeply emotional reminder of the morning when a live television program suddenly became part of a national tragedy.
Ripa was still relatively new to daytime television in 2001, having joined Philbin as co-host of Live with Regis and Kelly. On September 11, she and the late television icon were preparing for another morning broadcast when news of the attacks began unfolding.
Now, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the show’s longtime producer Michael Gelman has shared previously captured footage from that morning, along with his personal recollection of what happened behind the scenes.
“We decided to forgo our usual light chat”
According to Gelman, it was only minutes before the show went on air when he entered Regis Philbin’s office as part of his usual pre-show preparations.
Instead of the normal morning routine, he saw a WABC News report showing that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, with smoke visible from the building.
Gelman recalled gathering with Philbin and Ripa before they went on camera. Faced with the rapidly developing crisis, they made the decision to abandon their usual lighthearted conversation and follow the breaking news as it unfolded.
The footage shared by the show’s official Instagram captures that extraordinary transition.
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Ripa and Philbin can be seen addressing their studio audience while trying to process the reports coming in. Their reactions were visibly shaken as they explained what viewers were seeing through the news coverage.
At one point, Ripa expressed just how physically overwhelming the situation felt, saying, “I feel sick to my stomach.”
For Gelman, the footage represents much more than an old television clip.
“What we are sharing is a deeply personal clip for all of us at Live, as we discovered the terrorist attack on our country,” he wrote alongside the video.
A broadcast interrupted by history
The September 11 attacks involved the hijacking of four airplanes, two of which were flown into the World Trade Center. A total of 2,977 people were killed, while thousands of others have continued to face serious illnesses connected to the aftermath.
For the Live team, however, the events were not being viewed from a distance. They were unfolding in real time during a program that was already on the air.
That made the reactions of Ripa and Philbin particularly raw. There was no prepared segment or polished television response for a moment of this magnitude. Instead, the two hosts were confronted with breaking information alongside their audience and had to respond as events continued to develop.
The footage offers a glimpse of that uncertainty and shock, preserving a moment when an ordinary morning broadcast suddenly became a record of one of the most consequential days in American history.
Kelly Ripa’s career with Regis Philbin
Ripa had originally built her career as an actress, most notably playing Haley Vaughan on the soap opera All My Children. In 2001, she moved into daytime television when she joined Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Their partnership became an important chapter in her career and helped establish Ripa as a longtime presence in daytime television.
Philbin died in 2020. Following his death, Ripa reflected on the loss of her former co-host and paid tribute to the man she had worked alongside for years.
“As people get older, you always know that certain things are inevitable, and passing away is one of those things, but Regis is one of the people that we all believed would somehow figure out a way around the inevitable,” she said.
“It was not in the cards, I suppose.”
Now, as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 brings renewed attention to the broadcasts and personal memories from that day, the footage of Ripa and Philbin serves as a particularly poignant reminder of how quickly an ordinary morning changed — and how live television captured their reactions in the moment.
