Legendary Talk Show Host Phil Donahue Dies at 88

Emmy Award-winning talk show host Phil Donahue, who pioneered the audience participation format on his popular Donahue show, has died at 88 following a long illness.

He was surrounded by his family, including his wife of 44 years, actress Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, grandchildren and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie, his family said in a statement.

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Donahue was a legend in the world of daytime television.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he had a handful of jobs in radio and TV before joining WHIO radio in Dayton, Ohio, in 1959, where he hosted a program called The Conversation Piece. In 1967 he moved to WLWD-TV in Dayton, where he debuted the The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue. The show went on to be syndicated for 29 years.

Phil Donahue moderating a satellite hookup between American women at a television studio in Needham, Mass., and women in the Soviet city of Leningrad on June 22, 1986. The women discussed social and political issues for the taping of a program to be aired in both nations.

Jim MacMillan/AP Photo

Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Donahue typically featured a full hour with a single guest and discussions with audience members. The format set the 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.

The host’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, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, among hundreds of other topics.

With an amiable style and a head of salt-and-pepper hair, Donahue boxed with Muhammed 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.

During the late 1970s and early ’80s the show was syndicated to more than 200 stations in the U.S. and pulling in an average viewership of eight million. 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.

The show transformed talk TV. It inspired a host of new voices and the launch of an entire genre of programs like The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show and The Montel Williams Show, among others.

“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,” Oprah wrote on Instagram. “He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it. Rest in peace Phil.”