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Reeg Bans Kathie Lee
And that's his final answer.
The powers-that-be at the syndicated chatfest have enacted a no-Kathie-Lee edict essentially barring the entertainer from showing up on the show that once carried her name. The ban also extends to advertising, which means no commercials for her new album, Heart of a Woman.
Sure, the suits at Live with Regis (as the Gifford-less show is now called) have an official line: "We need to gain some physical and commercial separation from Kathie Lee during the search for her replacement," Tom Kane, president and general manager of the show's home base, WABC-TV in New York, tells the Associated Press.
The producers also say the temporary moratorium on visits by Gifford to her former studio haunt is merely to give Reeg's rotating band of auditioning guest cohosts an opportunity to settle in and connect with the audience without competing with Kathie Lee's attention-grabbing antics.
Gifford will be persona non grata on the show until July 28, 2001--exactly one-year after her departure.
She has been hitting the talk show circuit hard to hype her new CD. (One of the reasons she left Live after 15 years was to devote more time to her crooning career.) Her label, Universal, even purchased ad time to air during Live in the Los Angeles market, but the spots were rejected and the money returned.
During an appearance on archrival NBC's Today (airing in direct competition with Live), Gifford offered an explanation for the apparent bad blood. After warbling a tune for Matt Lauer and Katie Couric, Lauer asked whether Kathie Lee might like to go on her old show and sing a song for Reeg.
"I'd love to," said Gifford. "[But] I think they got a little angry when we booked the Today show so soon."
Meanwhile, Gifford's rep says the alleged feud is simply much ado about nothing. And during an appearance Thursday night on the Late Show with David Letterman, Gifford chalked up the Live diss to creative differences.
"I've always had this thing about cutting songs down. . .it's something [Live producer Michael] Gelman and I philosophically disagreed on," she told Letterman. "You give a song its due, you don't cut out three minutes of a five-minute song. So, rather than going on the old show...where the song would have been cut down to two minutes--what's the point?"
Translation: the less Kathie Lee singing Gelman hears, the better.
Of course, the feud is far more damaging to Kathie Lee than Regis and company. Since she exited, Live's ratings have spiked, boosting it to the second most popular syndicated talk show behind Oprah.
Gifford, meanwhile, needs all the help she can get. Heart of a Woman debuted on the Billboard's Hot 200 pop album charts at a dismal number 169.
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