R.I.P.: Talk Show Legend Phil Donahue Dead at 88

Phil Donahue ('36-'24)

DEVELOPING: Phil Donahue, the legendary TV talk show host, has died. He was 88. Donahue passed away Sunday night following a long illness, his family confirmed to “Today” Monday morning.

The late star died at home surrounded by his loved ones, including his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, grandchildren and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie.

Three months before his death, Donahue was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

The former host of “The Phil Donahue Show” got emotional as he was given the prestigious honor at the White House on May 3.

Donahue died at his home surrounded by his family, including his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, grandchildren and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie, his family said in a statement to TODAY.

Donahue's family requested that 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 statement.

The Washington Post reports “The Phil Donahue Show” debuted on a television station in Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 6, 1967, with a single guest: atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, sometimes called the most hated woman in America for her successful effort to end mandatory Bible reading in schools. Other installments that first week included a video of a woman giving birth and a discussion on the appropriateness of dolls with penises.

The station had already invited a studio audience for the variety show that Mr. Donahue’s program replaced, and he decided to let the audience stay.

He chatted with audience members during commercial breaks and often liked what he heard. So one day, while on the air, “I jumped out of the chair and went into the audience,” he told NPR years later. “That moment is what … subsequently made the program different, and absorbing enough to hold a viewer for an hour.”

From that point on, Mr. Donahue, whose bright blue eyes and flying shirttails made him seem boyish — even after his dark hair turned prematurely white — was known for running up and down aisles with a microphone to seek comments from audience members, the vast majority of whom were women.

The humorist Erma Bombeck, a friend of his from Dayton, described Mr. Donahue as “every wife’s replacement for the husband who doesn’t talk to her.”

By 1979, the show was reaching 9 million viewers, nearly 8 million of them female.