Phil Donahue, the celebrated daytime talk show host who pioneered the television staple, has died, his publicist confirmed to CBS News. He was 88.
Donahue died Sunday night surrounded by his wife, actor Marlo Thomas, and his sister, children and grandchildren, his publicist said in a statement.
He died peacefully after a long illness, the statement said, without providing additional details.
President Biden awarded Donahue the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year. The White House called “Donahue” one of the most influential television programs of its time.
Donahue got his start in broadcasting in the 1950s, working for both TV and radio. He launched “The Phil Donahue Show” in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967 and it was syndicated nationally three years later.
He moved the show in 1974 from Ohio to Chicago. He stayed in the city for about a decade, including a few years using CBS Chicago’s studios as the base of operations for the renamed “Donahue” show.
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In 1985, he moved the show to New York, and he was asked if he was worried Chicagoans would resent him for the move.
“I think maybe one of the reasons we’re hot in New York… is that we come from Chicago,” Donahue told 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, winning him 20 Emmy Awards, a Peabody and induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
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