AceShowbiz -

David Letterman has become the latest special guest who appears on "Live with Regis and Kelly" before Regis Philbin ends his gig on the show this week. Stopping by the daytime talk show on Wednesday, November 16, the "Late Show with David Letterman" host did have a unique way to express his honor to his fellow presenter.

David began praising Regis by comparing him to the late Johnny Carson. "When Johnny stepped down ... it was, who's gonna be the guy? Well lord knows it wasn't me ... and it's certainly not [Jay] Leno, we've established that ... so Regis, we realized, oh my god, sitting right under our nose, here's the guy," he said.

When Regis told David that he has done 17,000 shows, the CBS host stood up out of his chair and gave his friend a kiss on the lips. While the 80-year-old host looked stunned, his co-host Kelly Ripa could not help giggling.

Prior to that, David teased Regis about his Newsweek cover-shoot with Jerry Seinfeld. He went on taking a jab at Jerry by jokingly asking Regis, "You've been on my show, what, about a million times? How many times has Jerry put you on his show? Oh I forgot, Jerry doesn't have a show."

Regis will host "Live" for the last time on Friday, November 18. The day before, he will welcome his former co-host Kathie Lee Gifford as a guest on the show.