Dubbed “the king of daytime talk,” Donahue was the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show.
- Phil Donahue , a longtime daytime TV talk show host whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre that made household names of Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, has died. He was 88.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.
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, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, among hundreds of other topics.
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.
“The King Of Daytime Talk ” Obit TV Host Donahue Daytime TV Host Audience Participation TV Pioneer “The Phil Donahue Show” “Donahue” Hot-Button Social Issues
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