No Hope TV Special This Holiday

For the first time since TV was in its infancy, Bob Hope won’t be starring in a Christmas special this holiday season.

“He won’t be singing ‘Silver Bells’ this year - that’s what I’ll miss,” spokesman Ward Grant said Tuesday.

But the 92-year-old comedian isn’t retiring from television, nor is his long association with NBC in question, Grant and NBC officials said.

Hope, whose ties with NBC go back to radio’s heyday in the 1930s, began the annual TV tradition with his first Christmas show in 1950.

But Hope will keep another custom long a part of his Christmas show: He will introduce this year’s Associated Press All-America college football team Dec. 23.