Phil Donahue

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Phillip John Donahue (b. December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio) is the creator and star of The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, the first tabloid talk show. The show enjoyed a 27-year run on national (U.S.) TV, plus two years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio before ending. Although it ended in 1996, the show briefly reemerged as an MSNBC offering in 2002–2003.

His shows have generally focused on issues that often divide liberals and conservatives in the U.S., such as abortion, consumer protection (his most frequent guest was Ralph Nader, for whom he campaigned in 2000), civil rights and war protests.

1 Personal history
2 The Phil Donahue Show 1970-1996
3 Donahue on MSNBC
4 Phil Donahue, prank victim
5 Interview with Bill O'Reilly (9/05)
6 External links

[edit] Personal history

In 1953, Phil Donahue was a member of the first graduating class of St. Edward High School, an all-boys college prep Catholic high school run by the Brothers of Holy Cross in suburban Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in 1957. A year later he married his first wife, Marge Cooney, who divorced him in 1975. There were five children from that marriage. He married his second (and present) wife, actress Marlo Thomas, in 1980.

[edit] The Phil Donahue Show 1970-1996

Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant at TV and AM station KYW(now known as WKYC) in Cleveland. He got a chance to become an announcer one day when the regular announcer failed to show up. After a brief stint as a bank check sorter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio, Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating. He moved on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and later, an anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, where his interviews with Jimmy Hoffa and Billy Sol Estes were picked up nationally.

The Dayton-based Donahue hosted Conversation Piece, a phone-in talk show from 1963–1967 on WHIO-AM. There, he interviewed civil rights activists (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X) and war dissenters. He moved the format to television with The Phil Donahue Show on WLW-D (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio in 1967. The show was a success and was nationally syndicated two years later by Avco.

Donahue relocated the show's home base to WGN-TV in Chicago in 1974, and the show eventually took off, becoming both a national phenomenon and pioneer. Later, he moved the show to WBBM-TV for its final years based in the Midwest. In 1984, Donahue featured breakdancing for the first time on national TV, with the hip hop group UTFO [1].

In 1985, Donahue moved the program's operations to WNBC-TV, following a month-long buildup in which NBC late-night host David Letterman would use portions of his national program counting down the days to Donahue's move with a huge calendar in his studio.

In 1992, Donahue celebrated the 25th anniversary of his local and national program with a special produced at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, in which he was lauded by his talk-show peers. Ironically, in many corners, he was seen as having been bypassed both by Oprah Winfrey, whose own hugely successful national show was based in Donahue's former Chicago home base; and Sally Jessy Raphael, whose own talk show was distributed by Donahue's syndicator, Multimedia.

Donahue's show finally ended in 1996, culminating what remains the longest continuous run (27 years) of any tabloid talk show in U.S. history.

[edit] Donahue on MSNBC

In 2002, Phil Donahue returned to television to host a show called Donahue on MSNBC. Its debut ratings were strong, but its audience evaporated over the following months. In late August of 2002, it got one of the lowest possible Nielsen ratings (0.1), less than MSNBC's average for the day of 0.2. On February 25, 2003, MSNBC canceled the show, citing low viewership. However, that month, Donahue averaged 446,000 viewers and became the highest rated show on the network[2][3]. Other MSNBC shows, including Hardball with Chris Matthews and Scarborough Country, averaged lower ratings in 2005 [4]. Later, the liberal media watchdog group FAIR received a copy of an internal NBC memo that mentioned that Donahue had to be fired because he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war" [5]. Donahue was a vocal critic of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He mentioned the internal memo later in an interview on WILL-AM, a public radio station.

[edit] Phil Donahue, prank victim

One of the most talked-about incidents in the Donahue show's history came on January 21, 1985, soon after the show's base of production moved to WNBC-TV. Seven members of the audience appeared to faint during the broadcast, which was seen live in New York. Donahue, fearing the fainting was caused by both anxiety at being on TV and an overheated studio, eventually cleared the studio of audience members and then resumed the show.

It turned out the fainting "spell" was cooked up by media hoaxer Alan Abel in what Abel said was a protest against poor-quality TV.

[edit] Interview with Bill O'Reilly (9/05)

In September of 2005 Donahue was briefly back in public attention after an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor in which he rebuked Bill O'Reilly for his criticism of Cindy Sheehan and his support for the Iraq War.

Donahue also said that O'Reilly based his show and his interviewing style on little more than loudness and talking points, and criticized his treatment of Jeremy Glick, the son of a September 11 terror attack victim (Barry Glick) who memorably appeared on the show.