TV talk pioneer Phil Donahue, who revolutionized the genre and blazed a trail, is dead at 88

Phil Donahue, the celebrated King of Daytime Talk who altered the direction of talk television as host of the syndicated “The Phil Donahue Show” and later the redubbed “Donahue” for nearly three decades, died Sunday evening (August 18) following a long and undisclosed illness. He was 88 and surrounded by family, including his wife of 44 years, the actor, producer, author and social activist Marlo Thomas.

From 1969 when his show was picked up for national syndication until leaving the air in 1996, Donahue presided as the unquestioned pioneer of a type of television discussion that for the first time incorporated studio audience interaction as an intrinsic part of the mix. That audience was predominantly packed with women whose opinions were taken seriously. Both “Phil Donahue” and “Donahue” were by design swathed in controversial, issue-driven topics. He was the first to give voice to gay rights activists, feminists and antiwar protestors as well as abortion rights advocates and opponents. Everyone who came on the show was shown respect, even porn stars and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Bolstered by an inviting, inquisitive, nonthreatening journalistic style, the silver-haired Donahue’s interviews were penetrating and inclusive, forceful without being angry or belligerent. He would limit his shows to a single topic and typically a lone guest. Carrying a hand-held microphone and bopping like a pinball from one audience member to the next, he energetically turned his shows into town hall meetings where both sides were given equal time and intelligent discourse held center stage.

Oprah Winfrey, whose own talk show went national in 1986, on Monday credited Donahue in a post on X: “There wouldn’t have been an ‘Oprah Show’ without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously,” she wrote. “He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it. Rest in peace Phil.”

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Indeed, Donahue blazed the trendsetting trail that led to a genre of imitators and quasi-imitators in the daytime talk game, including Sally Jessy Raphael, Maury Povich, Montel Williams, Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, Geraldo Rivera, Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres. But while some of those shows would descend into circus-like tabloid screamfests, “Donahue” never devolved into the more bottom-feeding style. He remained a thinking-person’s show clear through the end of his run.

Donahue’s tone, energy and smarts not only made him a very wealthy man (he was reportedly earning $20 million annually in salary alone at the height of his success); it also helped to land him a wife. Donahue met the woman who would be by his side for precisely half of his 88 years, Thomas, when she was a guest on his show in 1977. He would later say it was love at first sight, and this was evident from their electric interaction on the air. “You are really fascinating,” Donahue told Thomas, grasping her hand. “”You are wonderful,” Thomas replied. “You are loving and generous, and you like women and it’s a pleasure.”

Sheri Singer, who worked for “Donahue” for seven years (1975-82) as first an associate producer and later producer (winning a Daytime Emmy in 1981), recalls being the conduit who initially helped Cupid’s arrow find its target. “When I came to get Marlo at the end of the live show, she said to me, ‘You know, whoever the woman is in his life, she’s really lucky. Is he dating anyone?’ I remembered that Phil was dating someone very casually but I answered her, ‘No, he’s not dating anyone.’ She called a few hours later and asked if she could speak to him. I went across the hall and asked Phil if it was OK. The rest is history.”

The pair married in 1980, Thomas becoming stepmother to the five children (four sons and a daughter) whom Donahue fathered in his first marriage.

Born on December 21, 1935, Donahue was raised in Cleveland and launched his media career in the late 1950s over talkradio and TV. He began his eponymous talk show in 1967 in Dayton, Ohio, before relocating the show to Chicago in 1974. Soon, all variety of top entertainers, activists, business leaders, athletes and politicians were clamoring to share the mic with Donahue, from Muhammad Ali to Alice Cooper to Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and Farrah Fawcett. But more than celebrities, it was the studio audience that proved the star of “Donahue” as its prime innovation. He once told WGN-TV, “One day, I just went out in the audience and it’s clear there would be no ‘Donahue’ show if I hadn’t somehow accidentally brought in the audience.”

It was an overly modest way to put it. Donahue gave himself too little credit, for it required a host with his combination of  warmth and insight to pull it off so flawlessly. Donahue never insulted your intelligence, nor did he pander to drive viewership. His interest in the subject always came across as entirely genuine. It’s a key reason why he was approved to tape five episodes inside the Soviet Union – partnered with Soviet journalist Vladimir Pozner – in January 1987, as well as interview anti-apartheid activist and future South African president Nelson Mandela in March 1990 during Mandela’s first appearance on a talk show shortly after his release from prison via satellite from Lusaka, Zambia.

Donahue was also credited as the first television host to feature a person living with AIDS in the early 1980s, when the number of cases was in the mere hundreds. And he never shrank from a good debate. When consumer advocate Ralph Nader went on his show to discuss automobile safety, he also brought on the recently retired president of General Motors.

Singer said on Monday that Donahue was unusually generous. When he penned his autobiography in 1979, several staffers on the show contributed writing to various chapters. Donahue evenly divided up the not-inconsequential sum of money that the book’s sales brought in among those who had participated, something he clearly didn’t have to do.

“It’s how I bought my first house,” she remembers.

Beyond that, Singer – who has gone on to a long and successful career as a television and movie producer and senior executive with 45 films to her credit – praised Donahue for being “as close to a perfect human being as I’ve ever known.” She adds, “Besides being an amazing boss, he changed my life. He changed the trajectory of my career. He changed my worldview and helped shape my adult values.”

A 20-time Daytime Emmy Award nominee, Donahue won nine Emmys as his show’s host and received a Daytime Emmy Life Achievement Award in 1996. He also was honored with a Peabody Award in 1981 and was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1993. Finally, Donahue in May was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden.

Survivors include his wife, his children Michael, Daniel, Kevin and Mary Rose, and a sister.

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