Following the announcement of Phil Donahue’s passing at age 88 on Sunday, fellow daytime TV legend Oprah Winfrey issued a statement Monday through her Instagram account. “There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously. He was a pioneer. I’m glad I got to thank him for it. Rest in peace Phil,” Winfrey captioned a throwback snap of the two. Despite being TV rivals when Winfrey joined the talk show scene, it seems that Donahue shared a similar admiration for the star. “And it is just not possible to overstate the enormity of her impact on the daytime television game. It was staggering,” Donahue said in a 2001 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “In many ways, she raised all the boats with her success,” he continued. An old clip from The Oprah Winfrey Show posted on YouTube shows Winfrey explaining her shock after she surpassed Donahue’s ratings within her first month. “He was the king of television,” she said.
