At the age of 88, the talk show star Phil Donahue died. His death was confirmed by Susan Aarons, a family representative.
In the 1960s, Donahue reinvented the television talk show on a democratic scale, inviting the audience to ask his guests questions about topics as high-profile as human rights and international relations and as brazen as male strippers and safe-sex orgies, died at his home on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
„The Phil Donahue Show” debuted in 1967 on WLWD-TV in Dayton, Ohio, and marked the beginning of Donahue's 29-year syndicated run during which he was the undisputed king of daytime television.