Donahue (TV series)
| The Phil Donahue Show | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Phil Donahue |
| Presented by | Phil Donahue |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 5,515 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) |
Dayton, Ohio (1967–1974) Chicago, Illinois (1974–1985) New York City (1985–1996) |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Avco Broadcasting (1967-1976) Multimedia Entertainment (1976-1996) |
| Distributor | Avco Program Sales (1970-1976) Multimedia Entertainment (1976-1996) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
WLWD (1967–1970) First-run syndication (1970–1996) |
| Original release | November 6, 1967 – September 13, 1996 |
The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, was an American television talk show hosted by Phil Donahue that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, and it was broadcast nationwide between 1970 and 1996.
In 2002, Donahue was ranked twenty-ninth on TV Guide magazine's list of the fifty greatest television shows of all-time.
In 1967, Phil Donahue left his positions as news reporter and interviewer at WHIO radio and television in Dayton and became the host of a new television program, Phil Donahue Show on WLWD (now WDTN), also in Dayton. His new program replaced The Johnny Gilbert Show, when Gilbert left on short notice for Los Angeles for a hosting job. On November 6, 1967, Donahue hosted his first guest, atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Though he would later call her message of atheism "very important", he also stated she was rather unpleasant and that, off-camera, she mocked him for being Catholic.
Initially, the program was shown only on other stations owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation (which would later take the name of its parent Avco Company), which also owned WLWD. But, on January 5, 1970, The Donahue Show entered nationwide syndication.
Donahue relocated the show's home base to Chicago in 1974, first housing it at then-independent station WGN-TV. Around this time the show's popularity increased, and in the process it became a national phenomenon. When the Avco Company divested their broadcasting properties in 1976, Multimedia Inc. assumed production and syndication of the program, which was now known as simply Donahue. In 1982, Donahue moved the show to CBS-owned WBBM-TV for its final years based in Chicago and the Midwest.
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