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Phil Donahue ‘Felt He Had a Lot of Years Left’ in TV: He Was ‘Sad to Be Put Out to Pasture’
Phil Donahue felt his show was unfairly canceled and it could have gone on for years, which made him angry and sad to see, a source exclusively told Closer
Get back to the Phil Donahue went to his grave furious he was forced to walk away from his once-dominant daytime talk show 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, a source exclusively told Closer. Phil, who died on Sunday, August 18 at the age of 88, invented the genre by inviting audiences to question the guests — a format that’s become standard. But by the mid-1990s, the ratings had dropped dramatically as audiences turned the channel to watch the tawdry confessions, screaming matches and free-for-all melees on his rivals’ shows.
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