Talk show legend Phil Donahue, who revolutionized television with his groundbreaking show “The Phil Donahue Show” by engaging studio audiences in current social issues, has reportedly died. He was 88 years old.
Donahue’s death was confirmed Monday by People and the “Today” show.
Donahue, who was married to actress Marlo Thomas for more than 40 years, hosted more than 6,000 episodes of his groundbreaking “The Phil Donahue Show” (later called just “Donahue”) from 1967 to 1996.
At the height of Donahue’s national TV reign, the infamous silver-haired host was a familiar television presence, storming around the studio with his cordless microphone to give viewers a chance to join in on televised discussions.
“Donahue” opened the doors for similar daytime talk shows, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” hosted by later ratings rival Oprah Winfrey, but also by more tabloid-oriented competitors such as Sally Jessy Raphael, Jerry Springer and Geraldo Rivera.
“He may not have invented how to talk to people on television, but he did it better than anyone before him. All of us who came after Phil Donahue owe him a huge debt of gratitude,” Winfrey said when she presented Donahue with a lifetime achievement Emmy in 2008. “If there hadn’t been Phil Donahue, there would have been no Oprah.”
Marlo Thomas, Phil Donahue The couple explores the “secret ingredient” of marriage in a 2020 book
Born on December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, the Irish Catholic presenter broke new ground in television with the premiere of the “Phil Donahue Show” on November 6, 1967. The University of Notre Dame graduate and radio host had been recruited by television station WLWD in Dayton, Ohio, to redesign its call-in program for local television.
Without the stars usually seen on talk shows in major cities like Los Angeles and New York City, Donahue addressed sensitive topics that drew questions from callers and viewers. The first-time television host began with a controversial audience discussion with atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get out of the building; people were going crazy,” Donahue said in an interview with the Archive of American Television about the first broadcast. “We knew we needed personalities that would make you want to go to that phone. The reaction was so strong that we took down part of the phone system in Dayton.”
Donahue’s innovation of encouraging studio members to participate in the often emotional mix of news and cultural issues represented a marked change from his celebrity talk show predecessors such as Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas.
“A talk show is a fundamentally democratic event,” Donahue said at his induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1993. “It allows the people who really own the airwaves, the public, to stand up and actually use them. Nobody is screening our audience. Nobody is telling our audience what to say. That’s the street corner.”
The nationally televised show was renamed “Donahue” in 1974 when production moved to WGN Studios in Chicago. That same year, Donahue’s marriage to his college sweetheart Margaret Cooney ended in divorce after 17 years, leaving the talk show host a single father to the couple’s five children. Donahue credited raising his children with helping him build a relationship with the housewives who made up the bulk of his television audience.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot about what women have to endure,” Donahue told Megyn Kelly in 2017. “I know Downey is going in the rinse cycle.”
Every American president from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton appeared on the show, which author David Halberstam described as “the most important graduate school in America.” “That Girl” actress Thomas was one of the Hollywood celebrities Donahue interviewed in 1977, which caused instant sparks.
Donahue told USA TODAY in 2020 that he viewed Thomas as a “hangover guest,” someone “who, even if you’re not very sharp and you’re not quick on the trigger, keeps the conversation going and saves you.”
“We went out the very next night and were together from then on,” Thomas told USA TODAY in 2020. “It’s so interesting. I’ve been on a lot of talk shows in my life. I didn’t fall in love with Johnny Carson, you know?”
The couple married on May 21, 1980, and the union was so successful that they co-wrote a book about it, “What Makes A Marriage Last,” which will be published in 2020.
“Donahue” was almost as long-lived, lasting nearly three decades before being overtaken by competitors like “Oprah,” which premiered in September 1986, and even more outrageous offshoots like “The Sally Jesse Raphael Show” (1983) and “The Jerry Springer Show” (1991).
“The streets were swarming with Donahue supporters,” Donahue said in an Emmy interview. “And it got more and more daring… the attempt to draw the crowd became so intense that the choice of material became more bizarre with each passing week.”
Due to declining ratings, Donahue retired from television in February 1996, just half a season shy of his 30th year behind the microphone. He returned in July 2002 to host the talk show “Donahue” on MSNBC, which was canceled after seven months.
Donahue was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in May 2024.
“He brought the power of personal stories into living rooms across America. He helped change hearts and minds through honest and open dialogue,” Biden said. “Over the course of a formative career on television and in thousands of daily conversations, Phil Donahue guided the nation’s discourse and spoke to our good angels.”
In an interview with the Television Academy in 2011, the talk show legend had no regrets. “It’s been a beautiful life, I’m a lucky person,” Donahue said. “What happened to me should happen to everyone.”
