Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220078
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Last week, NBC's New York City affiliate, WNBC, said it had dropped ``Donahue'' from its fall schedule. Since other stations have set their schedules, the syndicated ``Donahue'' is a no-show in the nation's largest TV market, and thereby a less-desirable advertising buy.
``Donahue'' isn't dead. Its syndicator, Multimedia Entertainment Inc., fresh-bought by Gannett for $1.7 billion, plans to distribute the show for at least another year. And a hole could yet open in another station's lineup.
Still, the silver-haired Everyman's situation is chockablock full of ironies, big and little.
The little ironies?
Well, WNBC is under contract through January, and will have to pay $35,000 a week for a show it will not air.
For another, ``Donahue'' rents its studio space from NBC, in that big building right behind the skating rink, and if ``Donahue'' pulls out, it costs WNBC's parent company $1 million a year.
Donahue himself isn't hurting. He got a big chunk of Multimedia stock when he sold his show to the syndicator, and he got another big payday in July when Gannett bought Multimedia.
Ah, but the big irony is that he was hoist by his own petard, knocked off in his time slot by ``Oprah'' and Geraldo Rivera, who used the audience-participation format that Donahue virtually invented.
Well, not exactly ... invented. When ``The Phil Donahue Show'' debuted on WLWD in Dayton, Ohio, on Nov. 6, 1967, a studio audience showed up for the canceled variety show he was replacing.
``Somebody said, `What are we going to do with the audience?' '' Donahue recalled in a 1987 interview. ``And somebody said, `Why don't we sit 'em down and let 'em watch the interview?' ''
His first guest was atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and, during the commercial breaks, the audience asked her questions Donahue thought were better than his.
But what got Donahue his national syndication shot in 1970 was his show's focus on issues - partly because Dayton doesn't have a constant stream of celebrities. But as time has told, Donahue LIKES issues.
He moved his production in '74 to Chicago, where he and the show, now titled ``Donahue,'' entered their prime. Between 1977 and 1988 he won seven Emmy awards as daytime's best host. The show itself won seven more.
It was fellow Chicagoan Oprah Winfrey, however, who knocked him out of first place in her freshman season, 1986-87. And it is Winfrey who has won the host Emmy for the past five seasons.
At its peak, ``Donahue'' touched on subjects that were on the cutting edge of public discourse, from ``male menopause'' to AIDS - a subject his show first tackled in 1982, well before the pandemic was established in popular consciousness.
He hasn't been above showcasing the occasional exotic dancer, transvestite, transsexual, bisexual, gay parent, gay priest, or gay senior citizen. He took his knocks for it - and opened the door for more exploitive talk shows to blow out the boundaries of good taste.
But he has also interviewed the top names in showbiz and politics, always letting his audience toss in questions, whether it's Ronald Reagan or Elizabeth Taylor.
He has tackled world politics, too. In 1987 (for February ratings ``sweeps,'' to be sure), he took his show to Russia for a week of shows about Soviet life.
He injected his interviews into the Israeli peace process, interviewing PLO leader Yasser Arafat with his Russian news partner, journalist Vladimir Pozner.
Donahue also, for good or ill, helped change the way U.S. politics is covered by presenting a series of ``town meetings'' with presidential candidates in 1992.
In 1994, he presided over a debate between former California Gov. Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton.
Through it all Donahue has been an enthusiastic pioneer in stretching the abilities of TV to reach people who need information about their world - and want a chance to talk back.
Most of the way, Phil Donahue has stuck to the high road, without pandering wholeheartedly to that aspect of human nature that gawks at bloody traffic accidents and side-show geeks.
That'll teach you, Phil.
by CNB