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SNL Holds Auditions To Replace Regis Philbin

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by Sarah Devlin | 12:10 am, November 20th, 2011

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Regis Philbin left his morning show after 28 years on Friday, and Saturday Night Live got busy replacing him the following night. Nasim Pedrad, playing Kelly Ripa, auditioned a slew of possible co-hosts, who ranged from Denzel Washington to Ashton Kutcher to Rosie O’Donnell. It seemed like an opportunity for the show to use the entire cast in a single sketch, with Kristen Wiig rounding things out as Kathie Lee Gifford, arriving using some kind of electric wheelchair with a bottle of white wine in tow.

Normally a sketch that just revolves on a handful of performers saying a line or two before leaving the set to make room for the next guy would bore me to tears, but I found Bobby Moynihan’s Rosie O’Donnell, Taran Killam’s Ashton Kutcher and Jason Segel’s Antonio Banderas funny enough to transcend the formulaic structure. If impressions aren’t your bag, though, this may not be your favorite sketch.

You can watch it here, via NBC:

jason segel, Kelly Ripa, Regis Philbin, Saturday Night Live

DAman

Some good impressions…..
shonangreg

Ricky Gervais was great! But did you think Denzel Washington was good? I haven’t really seen him like that.
Anonymous

Nasim Pedrad has great legs
DAman

Denzel and Ricky were at the top of my list. I wanted Ricky to have more lines though.
DAman

Nasim has great everything…..I would tear that A@@ up.
Kid Dynamite

Nobody knows comedy like Sarah Devlin. She has sold out comedy clubs across the country, has a Grammy and has three shows in development, She’s only working at Mediaite to fulfill a community service sentence.