NEW YORK – One of the chief teachings of Barney, the purple dinosaur, is to just be yourself. For Regis Philbin (search), even that's not enough to win the "Best Regis" award.
Barney is just one of Philbin's challengers for the honor, which will be announced Sept. 23 at the third annual Relly Awards. The Rellys are a sometimes tongue-in-cheek, self-affirming awards show for "Live With Regis and Kelly."
Also up for "Best Regis" are David Letterman (search), Jimmy Fallon, Dana Carvey, co-host Kelly Ripa (search), David Duchovny and Michael Gelman, the show's producer.
Other categories include funniest guest, best nonhuman guest and best host chat. To combat the syndicated talk show's lack of success in winning a daytime Emmy, "Live" created the Rellys, which give "Golden Stools" — a trophy-size version of the show's seats for the hosts and their guests.
A partial list of nominees was announced on the program last week, with the entire batch to be shown next week, beginning Monday. Each award will be decided by viewer votes, which can be cast at www.RellyAwards.com.
Last year, Philbin was snubbed for "Best Regis" — comedian Darrell Hammond's impersonation beat the real deal.
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