You did not have a permanent co-host,
and now you have Mr. Ryan Seacrest.
-Yes. -Congratulations.
-Thank you very much. -Are you --
Yeah, give it up for Ryan, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Is it nice to have someone permanent?
Because you basically would just -- you would be --
You would cycle through guest hosts.
I've guest-hosted. -Oh, yeah.
-And you have to be the host not just of the guests on the show,
but you also have to kind of, like, help the co-host.
-Well, first of all, Ryan is like my dream.
And he's been a friend of mine for 15 years.
So it's nice to go to work with your friends.
It's great.
But it's weird.
I would find myself constantly being terrified of getting sick
or falling ill or getting near --
If somebody coughed on the street,
I would hold my breath for 10 seconds.
Because as you know, 10 seconds is as long as it takes
for germs to evaporate.
-A cough -- A cough only lives 10 seconds.
-Yes.
A sneeze on the subway is like 45 seconds to a minute.
And you're like...
-I think currently on the New York subway,
sneezes are living 45 minutes.
-Probably they could, they could.
And then I would find myself constantly worrying about,
you know, knowing everything.
Not everything -- I just mean knowing who the guests were
and what time it was
and how many seconds three minutes are in real --
You know what I mean? -Yeah.
-You have to really host a talk show to know,
do I ask this question,
or is this long-winded person going to give me a --
-Absolutely. That's a big part of it.
Because someone is telling you how much time you have left.
-Exactly. Right, right.
-And so it was weird, because I feel like you were --
the show was like a child,
and you had a different co-parent every day.
-And a different co-parent.
-And they would show up and say, "Is he allergic to nuts?"
-[ Laughs ]
-You'd be like, yes.
-"What are we taking to the school potluck?"
-So, this is very exciting. -Yeah, it's nice.
-Now, you had many co-hosts. -Yes.
-And I've done it.
Fred Savage, who's our next guest, has done it.
-Yes. Fred Savage has done it.
-In 2006, you had a co-host.
He was a very famous television star at the time.
He's now President of the United States.
-Yeah, yeah.
-I'm just curious, how was he as a co-host?
-You're welcome, everybody. -Yeah.
-You're welcome.
He was great as a co-host.
You know what's crazy?
He was talking about running for president then.
-Yeah. -Then.
And I remember actively having this conversation with him.
I said -- He said, "Everybody wants me to run for president."
-And I said, "Who?"
[ Laughter ]
And he was like, "You know, everybody,
because I know, you know, I'm good with dealing --
all of my business dealings, I'm a negotiator."
And I said, "But why would you want to do that?
Why would you want to give up your life, which is so good?
You're not going to be able to go to Florida anymore.
You're not going to be able to golf every weekend."
-Right. -And I was wrong.
Like, you can do that. -Yeah.
You were -- -Yeah.
-In principle, you were right.
-In theory, I was right,
but now I realize that I'm an idiot and none of that is true.
-No, I will say, if there's anyone
who has made me feel like an idiot more,
it is this gentleman right here, because --
-He proves you wrong every time.
-He proves you wrong all the time.
-Yeah, every time. -But he was a good host?
He wasn't, like, nervous or anything?
He wasn't like, "I hope I was okay today."
-No, he was a great -- No, he was --
He came out, and he was like, "This is going to be
the biggest-rated show you ever have in your life."
And I was like, "Oh, my God. That's amazing."
-You guys always do fantastic Halloween costumes on the show,
and you trumped it up this year.
-I trumped it up, yes, I know.
-Did you hear from him? Did you get any feedback?
-I didn't get any feedback from him, which I was thankful for.
Because -- Because after, you know,
I heard that there was problems
with Melissa McCarthy's portrayal of Sean Spicer,
and I heard life became hard
because a woman was portraying him,
and then I was like, "Oh, my gosh,
if he finds out a woman portrayed him,
what's going to happen?"
But then I realized, like, I mean,
you know, I'm like Peter Pan at best.
So I guess I --
I guess he didn't have to fire himself over that.
-Yeah, he got it, he got it. He survived -- He survived that.
-He survived me playing him.