Regis Philbin died on Friday at the age of 88 due to natural causes. News of his passing was heartbreaking to many fans that watched his various shows, but it was equally devastating for those that worked with him — like, The Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta who reflected on his time with a “sincere” Philbin when they were both with FOX Sports.
Kosta posted a photo on Instagram Saturday night showing a moment from his time with Philbin. The two men sat at a desk covered in holiday decorations while posing for a camera. A massive Christmas tree sat in the background. As Kosta explained, the show was fairly short-lived, but he truly enjoyed his time working with the longtime TV host.
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“I’m lucky that I got to work with Regis for a year on Crowd Goes Wild 2013/14. We did 176 daily live TV shows together and to this day no one has seen any of them. He was old school show business. Worked hard, was a pleasure to be around, always funny and sincere in real life. He had zero social media presence which I always loved and respected (yet was still considered one of the greats.) RIP Regis,” Kosta wrote on Instagram.
While the former Daily Show correspondent proclaimed that no one ever watched Crowd Goes Wild, others on Instagram disagreed. Comedian Mo Mandel said that he “LOVED that show” while another social media user said that they still have every episode recorded on VHS. Many more people responded and talked about their enjoyment of the FOX Sports show.
According to IMDb, “Crowd Goes Wild is an original, and completely unpredictable, live sports entertainment talk show on Fox Sports 1.” The show took place in New York City and featured a panel of experts discussing top sports stories. Philbin was the biggest name, and he worked with Sky Sports host Georgie Thompson, Kosta, former NFL star Trevor Pryce, sports columnist Jason Gay and ESPN host Katie Nolan. The panel with unique backgrounds “put their spin” on the biggest stories from sports, entertainment and many other subjects.
As an example of the unique takes, Crowd Goes Wild tackled the traditional “hot takes” aspect of daily sports shows. Instead of having the hosts argue with each other, the show would have the hosts argue with themselves. They would have 30 seconds to present a point but would have to adopt the opposing opinion every time that Philbin rang a bell.
Ultimately, Crowd Goes Wild did not last beyond the one year, but Kosta, Nolan, Philbin and the other hosts delivered entertainment to viewers at home. Now fans can revisit some of the moments while mourning Philbin. Many of the clips have surfaced on YouTube, providing opportunities to watch Philbin and Kosta in action with the other co-hosts.
