PHIL'S FINAL REGRET - FIRED FOR BEING NICE!

PIONEERING talk show titan Phil Donahue went to his grave furious he was forced to walk away from his once-dominant daytime chatfest because he wouldn't imitate bottom-feeding competitors like Jerry Springer and Sally Jessy Raphael, who pandered to the lowest common denominator with bawdiness and brawls.

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Donahue, who died Aug. 18 at the age of 88, invented the genre by inviting audiences to question the guests - a format that's become standard.

He got his start on a local station in Dayton in 1967, then took the show national in 1974.