Talk:The Phil Donahue Show

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[edit] Longest Running Talk Show

There are several claimants: The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Larry King Show, The Tonight Show, Joe Franklin, and others, even making such claims in the Wikipedia to be the longest running. What is the source that The Phil Donahue Show was the longest running? patsw (talk) 21:50, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

You didn't read the whole sentence, because you would have seen that the Donahue show is the longest-running syndicated talk program in U.S. television history. The key word is syndicated. As for the others you listed, here's the breakdown:

• The Oprah Winfrey Show is currently in its 22nd season. Oprah needs four more years to catch up to Phil, but her current contract runs through 2011, her 25th season.
• The Tonight Show, which premiered in 1954, is an NBC network program. Always has been and always will be. It doesn't count.
• The Joe Franklin Show ran for 43 years (1950-1993) locally in New York. This program was never syndicated (despite WOR-TV/WWOR-TV being a superstation), and thus doesn't count either.
• Larry King Live has been a CNN show since 1987. Doesn't count here either.

Only two truly syndicated talk programs come close to Donahue, and they are Oprah and Live with Regis and..., which is celebrating its 20th anniversary during this current season. Next is the Mike Douglas Show, which ran from 1963 to 1982 (not including two years locally in Cleveland). The Sally Jessy Raphaël Show also aired for 19 years (1983-2002), and the Maury, Jerry Springer, and Montel Williams shows all premiered in 1991. Montel will complete his 17-year syndicated run later this year.

Is that enough verification for you? Rollosmokes (talk) 06:46, 6 February 2008 (UTC)