Phil Donahue
MSNBC fired Phil Donahue on Tuesday, abruptly ending the veteran talk show host's return to television after six months of poor ratings
In
2002, Phil Donahue returned to television to host a show called
Donahue on
MSNBC. On
February 25,
2003, MSNBC canceled the show, citing low viewership.
While he didn't garner as many viewers as
Bill O'Reilly, who shared the same time slot, Donahue was the highest rated show on MSNBC at the time it was canceled, managing to beat out even Chris Matthews' "Hardball" in the ratings.
[1]
Soon after the show's cancellation AllYourTV.com reported it had received a copy of an internal NBC memo that stated Donahue should be fired because he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war".
[2][3]
Donahue was the only host of a talk show on any cable network that had a decidedly anti-war stance against the then proposed
Invasion of Iraq in 2003
Phil
antiwar voices on the air
P
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