(DailyAnswer.org) – Phil Donahue, an innovative talk show legend whose career spanned decades, died at the age of 88.
Donahue died on Sunday, Aug. 18, after a long battle with illness. The talk show host’s wife, actress Marlo Thomas, posted the news on her Instagram page on Monday, Aug. 19, and said she lost her “sweetheart” the night before. Thomas said she would be taking a break from social media in order “to take care” of herself and “the many people who took care of” Donahue.
For over twenty years, Donahue was the only talk show host on TV who would actively involve his audience in his show by roaming around with the microphone and interacting with them, making them a key element to his show. He was widely influential amongst women in this era, more of whom were stay-at-home wives and moms who tended to watch daytime TV.
Eventually, Donahue inspired other shows that emerged in the 1980s, eventually leading to the rise of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Oprah became known for the same audience involvement and took it to a new level. In a 2001 interview with the Archive of American Television, Donahue said he “wondered” for a long time “why it took so long” for others to copy his show until Winfrey came along. He said it was impossible “to overstate the enormity” of Winfrey’s “impact” on daytime television.
Winfrey paid tribute to Donahue and credited him for inspiring her. She posted a picture of the two of them together on Instagram and said her show would never have existed without him because he was “the first to prove” that the genre and its primarily female audience “should be taken seriously.” Winfrey called Donahue “a pioneer” and said she was glad she was able to thank him for it while he was alive.
“The Phil Donahue Show” ran from Nov. 1967 to Sept. 1996 and lasted twenty-nine seasons. At the time it went off air, the show amassed almost 7,000 episodes and won 20 Emmy Awards. Although Winfrey surpassed his rating in 1986, Donahue wasn’t bitter about it and said Winfrey’s show “raised all boats” and helped lift his ratings, too.
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