Leeza Gibbons Makes Return To Syndicated Network TV With New Daytime Show

Funny how things work out. Just as the face (and legs) of “Entertainment Tonight,” Mary Hart, is exiting her 29-year co-hosting run, former “ET” co-host Leeza Gibbons is all set for her return to syndicated first-run television.

Gibbons is slated to co-host the new daytime daily news program “America Now” alongside creator Bill Rancic, with the show slated to debut Sept. 12, according to Deadline. The half-hour show will focus on lifestyle issues relating to health, beauty, finance and the home.

“The program is topical but not day-to-day timely," said Gibbons. In addition to her previous gig co-hosting “ET,” Gibbons was also host and managing editor of “Extra” after her departure. She also at one point executive produced and hosted her own NBC-syndicated talk show, “Leeza.”

More recently, she’s been hosting PBS’ nationally-syndicated weekly lifestyle show “My Generation,” which earned her a recent Daytime Emmy nomination. She was a one-and-done contestant on the seventh season of "Dancing with the Stars." Before fame, Gibbons had ironic bit-player roles as a reporter in the movie “RoboCop” and on the TV comedy “Soapdish.” In the ‘90s, she also hosted the radio countdown show “Blockbuster Top 25 with Leeza Gibbons,” later dropping the “Blockbuster” name after the video-rental chain dropped their sponsorship in 1999.

A true Jill Of All Trades, she also launched her own mineral makeup line Sheer Cover in the early 2000s and was appointed by then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the board overseeing California’s stem cell research agency as a patient advocate for Alzheimer's patients.

So, yeah . . . she’s clearly been slacking since leaving “ET” in 1995. Slacker.