Phil Donahue Made Daytime Talk Shows What They Are Today (2024)

1935-2024

Phil Donahue Today: Talk Show Host Dies at 88

Phil Donahue, the pioneering talk show host who changed the course of daytime television, died in his Manhattan home on August 18. The 88-year-old is survived by his wife of 44 years, actor Marlo Thomas; his children Michael, Daniel, Kevin, and Mary Rose; and his grandchildren. His family revealed that he’d been suffering from a “long illness” but didn’t share his cause of death.

Donahue was best known for his successful daytime talk show The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue, which he hosted for nearly thirty years. He was the first talk show host to interact with a studio audience on the air, altering the format of daytime TV for decades to come. The broadcast journalist often addressed hot-button social issues on his show and inviting audience members to participate in the discussion. He was also an outspoken feminist and advocated for women’s rights since the late 1960s.

Phil Donahue was a pioneering daytime talk show host who helmed The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue, for 27 years. The Ohio native went into broadcasting after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1957. A decade later, he began hosting his namesake program, which established a new mold for daytime talk shows with its audience participation and exploration of controversial issues. Donahue won numerous Emmy Awards but called it quits in 1996 after years of declining ratings. He resurfaced in 2002 with a short-lived show on MSNBC and also directed the 2007 documentary Body of War. Donahue was married to actor Marlo Thomas for more than 40 years.

FULL NAME: Phillip John Donahue
BORN: December 21, 1935
DIED: August 18, 2024
BIRTHPLACE: Cleveland, Ohio
SPOUSE: Margaret Cooney (1958-1975) and Marlo Thomas (1980-2024)
CHILDREN: Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Jim, and Mary Rose
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Phillip John Donahue, better known as Phil Donahue, was born on December 21, 1935, in Cleveland. His father, Phillip, was a furniture salesman, and his mother, Catherine, worked as a shoe clerk.

Phil enjoyed a wide range of activities as a child, including baseball and dance lessons. A member of the first graduating class of St. Edward High School in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, he played for the school band and drew cartoons for its newspaper. Despite mediocre grades, he was admitted to the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1957.

Upon graduation, Donahue got a job as a summer replacement announcer at KYW-AM and KYW-TV in Cleveland. He returned to KYW the following summer and finally made headway in the industry that fall by joining WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan.

Donahue then became a newscaster for WHIO radio and television in Dayton, Ohio, where he interviewed union leader Jimmy Hoffa. In 1963, he began hosting Conversation Piece, a radio phone-in talk show with a primarily female audience. Rising in the ranks at WHIO, Donahue reached a high point as co-anchor of the nightly news and host of other daily programs. He left the station in June 1967.

Following a brief stint as a salesman, Donahue returned to television with Dayton’s WLWD-TV in November 1967 as the host of The Phil Donahue Show. Although the program initially adhered to the standard host-guest interaction, Donahue soon hit upon a winning formula of soliciting the studio audience for questions.

The program quickly gained a following as a forum for hot-button social issues of the day, and by the fall of 1971, it had expanded to more than 40 stations. A big step came in 1974 when production was moved to WGN-TV in Chicago. The show’s title was shortened to Donahue.

Donahue went on to have numerous high-profile guests over the years, including President Ronald Reagan, South African President Nelson Mandela, and actor and activist Jane Fonda. However, he remained most popular for his devotion to controversial issues, touching on matters of women’s rights, homosexuality, and misdeeds of the Catholic Church. He won his first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host in 1977, and by 1979, the show was syndicated in more than 200 markets.

Following a move to WNBC-TV in New York City in 1985, Donahue made history by pairing with Soviet radio and TV personality Vladimir Pozner for the first live discussion between an American and a Soviet audience. In 1987, Donahue became the first U.S. talk show to be filmed in the Soviet Union.

Donahue’s format paved the way for subsequent successful talk show hosts such as Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Oprah Winfrey. The latter, having also started a broadcast talk show in Chicago, paid homage specifically to the pioneering talk show host, saying “If there hadn’t been a Phil, there wouldn’t have been a me.”

Ultimately, the same talk show hosts he inspired were the ones that brought about his downfall, as Donahue began losing viewers to Winfrey and Raphael and later to more controversial talk programs like The Jerry Springer Show. In 1996, after years of declining ratings, Donahue ended its run on the air. That same year, Donahue the host received a Daytime Emmy Award for lifetime achievement.

In July 2002, MSNBC coaxed the silver-haired host out of retirement to helm the much-hyped return of Donahue. However, just eight months later, the ratings-challenged cable network dropped the ax. Despite improving numbers, Donahue never seriously challenged the popular programs of its time slot, and its host also felt he was singled out for his anti-war views following the 9/11 attacks and the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan.

Donahue remained out of the spotlight until 2007, when he produced and directed the documentary Body of War. Three years later, he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show alongside other popular hosts such as Rivera, Raphael, Montel Williams, and Ricki Lake.

With his intelligent, informative daytime talk show style, Donahue’s influence is more noticeable with every bold talk show that hits the airwaves. His way of asking the probing questions, limitless curiosity, and trademark enthusiasm—bounding up and down the aisles of his studio to get as many audience comments as possible—was legendary. For his impact on television, Donahue received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden in May 2024.

Donahue was married twice and a father to five children.

In 1980, he married actor Marlo Thomas. They met when she was a guest on Donahue. The couple remained together for 44 years until Donahue’s death in August 2024.

Donahue’s first wife was Margaret Cooney. Donahue and Cooney met in college before marrying in 1958. They had four sons—Michael, Kevin, Daniel, and Jim—as well as a daughter, Mary Rose. Following their divorce in 1975, Donahue was awarded full custody of his sons, while Mary Rose lived with Cooney. His youngest son, Jim, died of an aortic aneurysm in 2014.

The famed TV host published his autobiography, Donahue: My Own Story, in 1979. He also authored the 1985 book The Human Animal, to accompany a five-part series about human behavior that aired the following year.

In 2020, Donahue teamed with his wife, actor Marlo Thomas, to publish What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life, featuring conversations with other long-lasting, high-profile couples like Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

Donahue has an estimated net worth of $150 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

• I realized during the commercials that these people in the audience were asking better questions than I was. So about the third or fourth show, I went out in the audience and it saved us. There would’ve been no Donahue show without that studio audience.
• There’s a lot of ego gratification here. My name is on the program—I’m the leader of the band. I can chase down a guest who might waffle. I don’t have to walk down the center of an issue like Tom Brokaw does. I have a blank check.
• I’ve never apologized for wanting to entertain people as well as inform them.

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