Yes—Phil Donahue said he missed his talk-show work “occasionally.” In a May 2024 interview with PEOPLE, he explained that he sometimes called questions at television guests from home, still hoping they might hear him. PEOPLE published the interview as a retrospective on August 19, the day after Donahue died at 88.
What did Phil Donahue say about missing his talk show?
Asked about his former work, Donahue told PEOPLE: “I do miss it occasionally.” He expanded on the thought with a detail that captured how naturally the host still responded to an interview: “Sometimes I’ll shout my question to a guest on the screen and hope they’ll somehow hear me.”
The comments appeared in an interview conducted in May 2024, after Donahue received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Yahoo Entertainment’s syndicated copy of PEOPLE’s article is the source for the quotations and context: PEOPLE’s posthumous retrospective, republished by Yahoo Entertainment.
Why did Donahue say curiosity still mattered?
Donahue described curiosity as the common thread between the talk shows he had hosted and the television he watched later in life. He said: “But to be honest, even though the medium has changed a bit — the sets are fancier, the productions are slicker, and the hosts are thankfully more diverse — all of the talk shows still cleave to the one thing that laid at the foundation of the 7,000 episodes I taped, and that’s curiosity.”
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The 7,000-episode count is Donahue’s own figure as quoted by PEOPLE; the article does not independently verify it. His broader point was that changes in sets, production and host diversity did not remove the value he placed on asking questions and listening.
He also expressed a belief in connection across differences: “I still believe that, despite our differences, we’re all part of this sprawling global family, and we just need to get to know each other, so that we can share the world together.”
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What else did the May 2024 interview reveal?
Donahue and his wife, Marlo Thomas, told PEOPLE they wanted a slower pace after their schedules became hectic again following the pandemic. Donahue joked about watching television together as “Netflix and Phil.” They also discussed plans to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary at a favorite beach in Barbados.
The article notes Donahue had 20 Emmys, a count Thomas referenced while discussing where the medals would be displayed alongside her own Presidential Medal of Freedom. The retrospective does not independently document the awards count.
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Why was the interview called “final”?
PEOPLE revisited the May conversation after Donahue died on August 18, 2024, aged 88. Its article appeared the next day and reported that he died following a long illness, surrounded by family. “Final” refers to this last PEOPLE interview, not a claim that it was necessarily his final interview with any outlet.
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