Phil Donahue, daytime speak present pioneer, dies at age 88

Phil Donahue, the celebrated daytime speak present host who pioneered the tv staple, has died, his publicist confirmed to CBS Information. He was 88.

Donahue died Sunday evening surrounded by his spouse, actor Marlo Thomas, and his sister, kids and grandchildren, his publicist stated in a press release.

He died peacefully after a protracted sickness, the assertion stated, with out offering further particulars.

President Biden awarded Donahue the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this 12 months. The White Home known as “Donahue” one of the crucial influential tv applications of its time.

Donahue bought his begin in broadcasting within the Fifties, working for each TV and radio. He launched “The Phil Donahue Present” in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967 and it was syndicated nationally three years later.

He moved the present in 1974 from Ohio to Chicago. He stayed within the metropolis for a few decade, together with a number of years utilizing CBS Chicago’s studios as the bottom of operations for the renamed “Donahue” present.

In 1985, he moved the present to New York, and he was requested if he was frightened Chicagoans would resent him for the transfer.

“I feel possibly one of many causes we’re scorching in New York… is that we come from Chicago,” Donahue informed the station.

In all, he had had what his publicist, Susie Arons, described as “a staggering 29-year run on the airwaves” totaling some 6,000 episodes, successful him 20 Emmy Awards, a Peabody and induction into the Tv Academy Corridor of Fame.

With a reside studio viewers, Donahue targeted his present on a single visitor or subject, and he did not stray away from controversy. His first visitor was atheist scholar Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and Arons famous that Donahue was the primary TV host to characteristic an individual who had AIDS within the early days of the epidemic.

As his viewers grew, he interviewed among the largest names of the late twentieth century, together with Muhammad Ali, former President Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Gloria Steinem.

“All of the feminists by some means appeared to, in the end, present up on the ‘Donahue’ present,” Donahue informed CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in 2020. “And we have been thrilled with that, as a result of they have been good visitors,” together with his spouse.

Donahue met Thomas when she was a visitor on his present in 1977.

“It actually wasn’t an interview,” she informed “Sunday Morning.” “And he stated to me, ‘How come you’ve got by no means married?’ I stated, I simply do not consider it is for me. It looks like it is solely a spot for one-and-a-half individuals, you realize, the person who has the dream and the opposite one who helps the dream.”

The couple marked their fortieth wedding ceremony anniversary in 2020.

“I at all times say,” Thomas stated, “I am so fortunate I married a person who noticed the ‘Donahue’ present each day!”