Former Westport Resident Phil Donahue, Talk Show Pioneer, Dies At 88

NEW YORK — Former Westport resident Phil Donahue, a household name for decades through his pioneering talk show, has died following a long illness, according to media reports. He was 88.

He was known as "the king of daytime talk," beginning in the 1970s and into the 1990s. His family told NBC's "Today" show that he died on Sunday night, surrounded by family.

Before moving to New York, where he was living with his wife, Marlo Thomas, at the time of his death, Donahue and Thomas were longtime residents of Beachside Avenue in Westport. The couple married in 1980.

Donahue paved the way for other daytime TV talk show hosts and shows as the first to incorporate audience participation in a talk show, typically during a full hour with a single guest. He interviewed politicians and took on controversial issues of his era including feminism, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, among hundreds of other topics, giving studio audiences and callers a chance to weigh in.

He often interviewed guests telling deeply personal stories. When dealing with controversial subjects, he famously played the devil's advocate, lobbing hard questions while roaming through the audience.

The format set "The Phil Donahue Show" apart from other interview shows of the 1960s and made it a trendsetter in daytime television, where it was particularly popular with female audiences.

"Just one guest per show? No band?" he remembered being routinely asked in his 1979 memoir, "Donahue, My Own Story."

Later renamed “Donahue,” the program launched in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967. Donahue’s willingness to explore the hot-button social issues of the day emerged immediately, when he featured atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair as his first guest.

When the show became syndicated, it dominated daytime talk shows and racked up up 20 Emmy Awards. Donahue won the esteemed Peabody Award in 1980. The show’s last episode aired in 1996 in New York. That year he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award.

By then, Oprah Winfrey was the queen of talk, expanding on Donahue's format with a softer touch.

Donahue returned briefly to television in 2002, hosting another "Donahue" show on MSNBC. The station canceled it after six months, citing low ratings.

This year, President Joe Biden awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Donahue, who was cited as a pioneer of the daytime talk show.

Donahue was born Phillip John Donahue on Dec. 21, 1935, part of a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland. They moved to Centerville, Ohio, when Donahue was a child.

Donahue and Thomas were married for 44 years. He is survived by his sister, children, grandchildren and "beloved golden retriever," according to his family.

Donahue's family has requested donations be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers, according to the family's statement.

City News Service, the Associated Press and Paige Austin, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.