Quite a sendoff for Regis, all this considered

I wonder how ABC/Disney executives felt about a small snippet in last night's hour-long farewell salute when Katie Couric asked the 80-year-old talk show host whether his decision to leave was related to salary. From ABC:

"Well, that's exactly right," he said. "Otherwise maybe I might have changed my mind. But it wasn't what I expected or I thought I deserved. You know, one of those things. And so I felt it was time to move on."

This runs somewhat counter to his earlier comments that it wasn't about money, and that he and ABC parent Disney hadn't even begun salary talks. From Alex Ben Block in THR:

Philbin had apparently been thinking of taking it easier for some time. His show schedule requires him to get up in the wee hours of the morning, and makes living a normal life difficult since he has to go to bed early. Then when his agent at the time Jim Griffin went in to talk to Disney, sources say he was told the syndication business was soft and the show wasn't pulling as big numbers as it had. They also apparently brought up how much time Philbin takes off each year. The bottom line was what mattered, however: It was still a success, but not as big a success, so sources said they were still willing to pay him a lot, but not as much as he had been getting.

Philbin's current contract is said to be in the $21 million range. At the time he announced his plans to leave, TMZ and other news outlets reported that the show's staff, particularly Kelly Rippa, felt blindsided. None of this was apparent at this morning's sendoff - even Disney CEO Bob Iger was on hand.