Phil Donahue, Pioneering Talk Show Host, Dead at 88

Phil Donahue, the celebrated daytime talk show host who revolutionized the television landscape with his groundbreaking program, “The Phil Donahue Show,” has died at the age of 88, his publicist, Susie Arons, confirmed to CBS News.

The prominent TV figure passed away peacefully on Sunday night after a long illness. He was surrounded by his family and actor Marlo Thomas.

Donahue, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Joe Biden earlier this year, was widely recognized for his impactful contributions to television broadcasting. The White House praised Donahue as one of the most influential television programs of its time.

“Phil Donahue broadcast the power of personal stories in living rooms all across America. He helped change hearts and minds through honest and open dialogue. And over the course of a defining career in television and through thousands of daily conversations, Phil Donahue steered the nation’s discourse and spoke to our better angels,” Biden said during the May White House ceremony.

Donahue’s broadcasting career began in the 1950s, with both television and radio work. He launched “The Phil Donahue Show” in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967, and it was nationally syndicated three years later. In 1974, he moved the show to Chicago, where it remained for a decade.

The show relocated to New York in 1985. Over its staggering 29-year run, Donahue’s show aired an estimated 6,000 episodes, earning him 20 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

With a live studio audience, Donahue focused on single guests or topics, fearlessly tackling controversial issues. His first guest was atheist scholar Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Arons noted that Donahue was the first TV host to feature a person with AIDS in the early days of the epidemic.

Donahue interviewed some of the most prominent figures of the late 20th century, including Muhammad Ali, former President Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, and Gloria Steinem. During the 1992 presidential election, he hosted a conversation between President George H.W. Bush and his challenger, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

Donahue is widely recognized as a trailblazer in daytime television, paving the way for the success of prominent figures like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Geraldo Rivera, and Jerry Springer, according to the report.