Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died (2024)

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WATCH LIVE TONIGHT: Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre, has died People are also reading… Photos: Notable deaths in 2024 Glynis Johns Adan Canto Bud Harrelson Dejan Milojevic Jack Burke Mary Weiss Norman Jewison Charles Osgood Melanie Safka Chita Rivera Carl Weathers Wayne Kramer Ian Lavender Toby Keith Henry Fambrough Bob Edwards Don Gullett Lefty Driesell Andreas Brehme Golden Richards Richard Lewis Nikolai Ryzhkov Brian Mulroney Akira Toriyama Iris Apfel Andy Russell Ed Ott Chris Mortensen Steve Lawrence Naomi Barber King Paul Alexander Thomas P. Stafford Chris Simon M. Emmet Walsh Laurent de Brunhoff Obit Angelos Baseball Joe Lieberman Louis Gossett Jr. Joe Flaherty John Sinclair Larry Lucchino Christopher Durang Jerry Grote Schappell Twins Peter Higgs Ralph Puckett Jr. O.J. Simpson Eleanor Coppola Robert MacNeil Faith Ringgold Steve Sloan Ken Holtzman Carl Erskine Whitey Herzog Bob Graham Dickey Betts Mandisa David Pryor Roman Gabriel Andrew Davis Terry Anderson Bill Gladden Duane Eddy Paul Auster Dick Rutan Steve Albini Jimmy Johnson Sean Burroughs Roger Corman A.J. Smith David Sanborn Obit Alice Munro Dabney Coleman Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Jim Otto Ivan Boesky Jan. A.P. Kaczmarek Carlie Colin Morgan Spurlock Richard M. Sherman Bill Walton Albert Ruddy Larry Allen Janis Paige Parnelli Jones Chet Walker The Rev. James Lawson Jr. Jerry West Ron Simons Bob Schul Willie Mays Donald Sutherland Bill Cobbs Kinky Friedman Martin Mull Robert Towne Vic Seixas Obit Jon Landau James Inhofe Joe Bonsall Shelley Duvall Dr. Ruth Westheimer Richard Simmons Jacoby Jones Shannen Doherty James Sikking Pat Williams Lou Dobbs Cheng Pei-Pei Abdul 'Duke' Fakir Bernice Johnson Reagon John Mayall Erica Ash Bob Newhart Stay up-to-date on what's happening FAQs References

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Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre, has died

By JULIE CARR SMYTHAssociated Press
Aug 19, 2024
Aug 19, 2024 Updated 4 hrs ago
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We’ve had to say goodbye to some beloved musicians, athletes, actors and more. Here's a look at the stars we've lost so far in 2024, through July.

Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre that brought success to Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, has died. He was 88.

NBC's “Today” show, citing family members, said Donahue died Sunday after a long illness.

Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Donahue was the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically during a full hour with a single guest.

“Just one guest per show? No band?” he remembered being routinely asked in his 1979 memoir, “Donahue, my own story.”

The format set “The Phil Donahue Show” apart from other interview shows of the 1960s and made it a trendsetter in daytime television, where it was particularly popular with female audiences.

Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died (1)

Later renamed “Donahue,” the program launched in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967. Donahue’s willingness to explore the hot-button social issues of the day emerged immediately, when he featured atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair as his first guest. He would later air shows on feminism, hom*osexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, among hundreds of other topics.

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The show was syndicated in 1970 and ran on national television for the next 26 years, racking up 20 Emmy Awards for the show and for Donahue as host, as well as a Peabody for Donahue in 1980. In May, President Joe Biden awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Donahue, who was cited as a pioneer of the daytime talk show.

The show included radio-style call-ins, which Donahue greeted with his signature, “Is the caller there?”

The show’s last episode aired in 1996 in New York, where Donahue was living with his wife, actress Marlo Thomas. He met Thomas, the “That Girl” star of the 1960s who was a household name at the time and would later become a regular on “Friends,” when she appeared on his show in 1977.

He later said it was love at first sight, and they did a poor job of hiding it on the air.

“You are really fascinating,” Donahue told Thomas, grasping her hand. “You are wonderful,” Thomas said back. “You are loving and generous, and you like women and it’s a pleasure, and whoever the woman in your life is, is very lucky.”

Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died (2)

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The two had been married since 1980. Donahue had five children, four sons and a daughter, from a previous marriage.

Donahue returned briefly to television in 2002, hosting another “Donahue” show on MSNBC. The station canceled it after six months, citing low ratings.

He was born Phillip John Donahue on Dec. 21, 1935, part of a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland. They moved to Centerville, Ohio, when Donahue was a child, where he lived across the street from Erma Bombeck, the future humorist and syndicated columnist.

Donahue was in the first graduating class of St. Edward High School, a Catholic all-boys preparatory school in Lakewood, in 1953 and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in business administration in 1957. He later rebelled against, and left, the church, though he poignantly recalled in his book that “a little piece” of his faith would always be with him.

After a series of early jobs in radio and TV, Donahue was invited to move an earlier radio talk show to Dayton’s WLWD television station in 1967. It moved in 1974 to Chicago, where it stayed for years, then ended its run in New York.

The show featured discussions with spiritual leaders, doctors, homemakers, activists and entertainers or politicians who might be passing through town. He said striking upon the show’s winning formula was a happy accident.

“It may have been a full three years before any of us began to understand that our program was something special,” Donahue wrote. “The show’s style had developed not by genius but by necessity. The familiar talk-show heads were not available to us in Dayton, Ohio. ...The result was improvisation.”

That lent a freedom to the show that persisted as it grew to No. 1 status in its class.

With an amiable style and a head of salt-and-pepper hair, Donahue boxed with Muhammad Ali. He played football with Alice Cooper. His guests gave cooking lessons, taught break dancing and, more controversially, described “mansharing,” being a mistress, lesbian motherhood or — with the help of gathered video that got shows banned in certain cities — how natural childbirth, abortion or reverse vasectomies worked.

A stop on “Donahue” became a must for important politicians, activists, athletes, business leaders and entertainers, from Hubert Humphrey to Ronald Reagan, Gloria Steinem to Anita Bryant, Lee Iacocca to Ray Kroc, John Wayne to Farrah Fawcett.

Outside of his famous talk show, Donahue pursued several other projects.

He partnered with Soviet journalist Vladimir Posner for a groundbreaking television discussion series during the Cold War in the 1980s. The U.S.-Soviet Bridge featured simultaneous broadcasts from the United States and the Soviet Union, where studio audiences could ask questions of one another. Donahue and Posner also co-hosted a weekly issues roundtable, Posner/Donahue, on CNBC in the 1990s.

Donahue also co-directed the 2006 documentary “Body of War,” which was nominated for an Oscar.

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Phil Donahue, pioneering daytime talk show host, has died (2024)

FAQs

What caused the death of Phil Donahue? ›

Donahue died Sunday night of an undisclosed illness, according to a family statement provided to ABC News by a representative for Donahue's wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas.

Keep Reading ›

What year did Phil Donahue come out? ›

Donahue got his start in broadcasting in the 1950s, working for both TV and radio. He launched "The Phil Donahue Show" in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967 and it was syndicated nationally three years later.

Explore More ›

Did Phil Donahue have children? ›

Donahue had five children from a previous marriage: four sons, Michael, Kevin, Daniel and James; and one daughter, Mary Rose.

See Details ›

Who was the first daytime talk show host? ›

Aug. 19, 2024 3:36 p.m. Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre that brought success to Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, has died. He was 88.

Get More Info ›

What was the Donahue controversy? ›

The program moved to Chicago in 1974, shortened its name to "Donahue" and was syndicated across the United States. He took chances and welcomed controversy. He aired a birth in his first week. He televised an abortion in a later episode.

See Details ›

Why did the Phil Donahue show go off the air? ›

The network canceled it after six months, citing ratings — although internal memos would later reveal that it was about politics. He was born Phillip John Donahue on Dec. 21, 1935, part of a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland.

Read The Full Story ›

What was Phil Donahue's religion? ›

In 2014, Donahue's youngest son, James Donahue, died suddenly at the age of 51 from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Regarding his religion, Donahue had stated: "I will always be a Catholic. But I want my church to join the human race and finally walk away from this antisexual theology."

Read The Full Story ›

Who was Marlo Thomas's husband? ›

In 1977, Thomas was a guest on Donahue, the television talk show, when she and host Phil Donahue fell in "love at first sight". They were married on May 21, 1980, and Donahue moved with some of his sons and his daughter from Chicago to New York City to live with Thomas and to produce his talk show there.

How old was Troy Donahue when he died? ›

Donahue, 65, died at 6 a.m. at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, according to Bob Palmer, a family friend. The actor had been admitted to the hospital Thursday after suffering a heart attack. An emergency angioplasty was successful, but Donahue then suffered a second heart attack, Palmer said.

Who has the most popular daytime talk show? ›

'The View' Is the Most-Watched Daytime Talk Show, Taking the Top Spot in All 23 Weeks of Original Telecasts This Season in Households and 22 of 23 Weeks in Total Viewers. For the week of Feb. 22, 2021, the most recent week including syndication, ABC's “The View” ranked No.

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Who is the most popular talk show host? ›

The most popular choice was Last Week Tonight host and Daily Show alum, John Oliver, with 12.99 percent of the vote, but only by a whisker; The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon was only 0.01 percent behind with 12.98 percent of respondents naming him their fave. The full list of hosts, ranked by popularity, is below.

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Who was the first woman talk show host? ›

Joan Rivers, who began hosting "The Late Show" in 1986, is generally credited as the first female late-night host. The comedian had appeared frequently on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show" and became permanent guest host in 1983.

Learn More Now ›

Did Troy Donahue marry? ›

Life for him became very peaceful. After four marriages, he found love with mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao, and they had a quiet life in Santa Monica. Troy even said at one point, 'I'm really happy to just be Mr.

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Did Troy Donahue have any sons? ›

Children. In 1982, Donahue learned he had a son, Sean, by a woman with whom he had a brief relationship in 1969.

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