Phillip John Donahue was born on the 21st December 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio USA, of part Irish descent. He earned his net worth and popularity as a TV host and producer, perhaps best known for the creation of the very first talk show – “Donahue” – which included the audience as participants . The show aired for 29 years, from 1967 until 1996. Over the course of his career, Donahue has garnered numerous awards and achievements, including 20 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award in 1980, and he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993. His career in the media has been active since 1963.
Have you ever wondered how rich Phil Donahue is? According to sources, it is estimated that Phil Donahue`s overall net worth is $23.5 million, an amount acquired through his successful career as a TV personality spanning almost 50 years.
Phil Donahue Net Worth $23.5 Million
Phil was raised in Ohio; his father was a furniture salesman and his mother a shoe store clerk. Regarding his education, Phil belongs in the first class that was educated at St. Edward High School. He then enrolled at the University Of Notre Dame, which was run by the Congregation of the Holly Cross, and graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.
Phil`s career began soon afterwards, as he was featured as a production assistant at KYW radio when it first began airing from Cleveland. He soon acquired a position as an announcer, when the regular one didn`t show up one day. However he moved to Dayton and secured a job as the newscaster on WHIO radio, during which time he began to work on his first radio talk show entitled “Conversation Piece”, which subsequently aired from 1963 until 1967. Some of the most famous interviews Phil made during the show included John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, John Frazier, Muhammad Ali and Elton John among many others.
However, Donahue left WHIO radio in 1967 in order to expand his talk show to television, as he joined WLWD-TV. He immediately renamed his show to “The Phil Donahue Show” and with its first episode ratings went through the roof, which announced a bright future for Phil. In 1972 the show became nationally syndicated because of its constant rise in popularity, therefore greatly increasing Phil`s overall net worth. In 1977 came his first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host, which was followed by nine more wins, and he has also won ten Emmy awards for “The Phil Donahue Show”.
Of particular significance during this period, Phil hosted a so-called US-Soviet Space Bridge in 1980, when ordinary citizens from cities in the US and USSR asked each other questions on air – as Donahue said: “ We reached-out instead of lashing out.”
However, with the beginning of the 1990s, the ratings of the show slowly declined in audience numbers, which eventually led to its ending in 1996. The last episode aired on the 13th September 1996.
Donahue briefly retired from the media until 2002, when he came back to host the talk show “Donahue” on the MSNBC television, however, it was cancelled in 2003.
In 2006, Donahue was featured as a director and producer of the documentary film “Body Of War” alongside Ellen Spiro, which also benefited his net worth, as the film was considered for the Oscar nomination.
In 2010, he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, together with other famous hosts Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, Montel Williams and Ricky Lane. At that time, Oprah declared that “…if it hadn’t been for Phil, the Oprah show would never have happened…”
When it comes to his personal life, Phil has five children with his former wife Margaret Cooney; they were married from 1958 until 1975. Since 1980, Phil has been married to Marlo Thomas, whom he met on his show. The couple resides in New York City.
