Farewell to the KING OF DAYTIME TALK

THE PIONEERING HOST WAS THE FIRST TO TRUST THAT AMERICANS COULD HANDLE FRANK DISCUSSIONS OF HOT-BUTTON TOPICS

- Louise A. Barile

PHIL DONAHUE (1935-2024)

Phil Donahue recalled the moment he realized the power of the microphone. “I was a reporter for WABJ radio in Adrian , Michigan,” he told Closer. “I must have looked 13.” But he suddenly understood why reporters are so important. “The more people you have reporting, the more likely it is that somewhere will be found the truth,” he explained.

On The Phil Donahue Show and, later, Donahue, the revolutionary talk show host, who passed away on Aug. 18 at age 88, proved that there was an appetite for something more than soap operas and game shows on daytime TV. He interviewed presidents and movie stars before a live studio audience, and also talked seriously about sex, abortion, equal rights for women, the Ku Klux Klan and other hot-button topics previously deemed taboo. “The average housewife is bright and inquisitive,” he said in 1979, noting that other shows made the mistake of treating the daytime viewer “like some mental midget.”