Regis Philbin, the much-loved, veteran co-host of "Live With Regis and Kelly," announced he is retiring from the show.

Philbin made the announcement Tuesday morning at the start of the New York City-based morning show which he co-hosts with Kelly Ripa. "Live" airs in Canada on CTV.

"I don't want to alarm anybody," he said. "This will be my last year on the show."

Philbin, who has been a familiar face on U.S. television for over 40 years, is 79 years old.

He grew up in The Bronx neighbourhood of New York City, and said Tuesday that joining "Live," which allowed him to return home, was a dream come true.

"It's been a long time. It's been 28 years," Philbin said.

"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. ...

"There is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera -- especially certain old people!"

He said he would be stepping down from the show, which he has co-hosted since 1983, near the end of summer, though no specific end date was given.

Philbin began his on-camera career in San Diego in the 1960s with "The Regis Philbin Show." It was there that he first developed the chatty, casual banter with his co-host that became his trademark way of opening a show.

In 1967 he went on to play Joey Bishop's sidekick on "The Joey Bishop Show" -- the job that gave him his first national exposure in the U.S.

Over the years Philbin has hosted "A.M. Los Angeles," "Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis," and more recently "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," the first season of "America's Got Talent" and "Million Dollar Password."

"Live With Regis and Kathie Lee" became nationally syndicated in 1988 after it originally debuted in 1983 on WABC New York as "The Morning Show."

After announcing his retirement on Tuesday, Philbin promised "we'll have a lot of fun between now and then."

According to a statement, the "Live" franchise will announce a new co-host in the coming months to join Kelly Ripa.

"It will be difficult to say goodbye to Regis after 28 years as a member of our family," said Dave Davis, president and general manager, WABC.

"We will miss him as a colleague and friend. We're fortunate, however, to have two real pros who can lead "Live" into the future -- Kelly Ripa, who has spent the last 10 years developing her own amazing voice in daytime talk, and Michael Gelman, who has been with the show since its inception and is one of the best executive producers in daytime television."

"Live" is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television and is produced by WABC-TV in New York. The show airs in more than 200 markets across North America.