How Donahue Made Strippers, Sex Abuse and Trump Must-See TV
Phil Donahue, host of the long-running Phil Donahue Show (which was later shortened to Donahue) who died at the age of 88 on Sunday night, changed how Americans watch television.
The format and topics he chose blew down the doors for Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer and laid the groundwork for everything from reality television to—arguably—Donald Trump.
From race relations to male strippers and child sex abuse, Donahue tackled it all and made once-taboo topics on TV become business as usual. “I took a lot of heat,” Donahue told broadcaster Piers Morgan in 2012, “We brought male strippers to daytime television.”