A lot of people know Regis Philbin asked to be the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. What they don't know is that he was always the first choice.
Regis and I had already talked about him hosting a reboot of The $64,000 Question I'd been developing, but it was clear from the early run-throughs that the show couldn't work.
No one would ever take any risks! So when I saw a tape of Millionaire in the U.K., it solved all of my problems. I was in one those old ABC Entertainment Center offices — the one on Avenue of the Stars that's since been consumed by the CAA Death Star — when Regis called.
Read more on hollywoodreporter.com