Phil Donahue
Legendary “King of Daytime Talk” Phil Donahue, the man behind The Phil Donahue Show, passed away on Sunday, Aug. 18. at 88.
A family statement first shared by the Today show on Monday, Aug. 19 revealed that the groundbreaking TV talk show journalist died at his residence surrounded by family, including his wife of 44 years, actress Marlo Thomas, as well as “his sister, his children, grandchildren, and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie.”
He “passed away peacefully following a long illness.”
He born 1935, in Cleveland, Phil began his media career in the late 1950s as a talk radio and television host. He launched his eponymous show in 1967 in Dayton, Ohio.
In 1971 Phil gained attention and accolades for airing a week of shows from behind bars at the Ohio state penitentiary and fighting about hot dog policies.
The Phil Donahue Show devoted the entire hour-long broadcast to a single issue. A 1974 move to Chicago and a name change to Donahue saw the host transform the daytime format while establishing himself as the host with the most.
When Phil Donahue came to Chicago, he discovered a critical ingredient: the Chicago studio audience,” Weiner says WGN-TV 2023. “That’s when the show really took off.”
Donahue said, “Ninety shows later and one day I’m out in the audience… And let me tell you something: he wouldn’t have a damn show if somehow Donahue didn’t stumble onto an idea of bringing in his own arena.
It then went to New York City in January 1985. Donahue stayed busy as a trailblazer in live broadcasting from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, conducting groundbreaking daytime interviews with politicians, activists, musicians — everybody.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, he was also the first host ever to videotape five episodes in 1987 in Soviet Union Nelson Mandela appearance[edit]Mandela on Donahue in Lusaka, Zambia 1990In March 1990, the first talk show interview via satellite was done with Nelson Mandela by Phil who flew to Johannesburg along his staff Jerry Drew and Janicek Dick.
which would later host the first televised debate between Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton &) and Jerry Brown Jr. in April 1992.
The talk show stayed in New York City until its last taping there on September 9,1996 after spending 29 years on air. In 2002, after a six-year absence from primetime TV, Donahue himself hosted an interview-based program called simply Donahue.
MSNBC cancelled Phil Donahue self-titled show in February 2003 because it drew low ratings. He wrote, co-directed and produced the 2007 documentary Body of War after the show was canceled.
The two first crossed paths in 1977 when Thomas appeared as a guest on Donahue, and were married by the end of that decade. Thomas, who was speaking in the throwback post on Facebook said there ‘it was instant chemistry.
Thomas told in May 2023 that “love, listening and lust” are her secrets to a successful marriage with Donahue.
All you have to do is listen, then and when they tell what that hell other person has on their mind. You have to love each other. And without lust, none of it really is,” I explained, “He’s the best. I’m very lucky.”
Joe Biden awarded Donahue the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky and Best Actress Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh in May 2024.
Thomas had four children, Michael, Kevin and Dahne Donahue along with Mary Rose Send a Letter to the Editor He is survived by son James “Jim” Patrick who at 51 succumbed to a sudden heart attack in July of this year due to an undiagnosed major thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysm.
