Phil Donahue, American Talk Show Host Who Bridged U.S., Soviet Audiences, Dies Aged 88

U.S. television talk show pioneer Phil Donahue, who hosted a groundbreaking television discussion series between U.S. and Soviet audiences in the 1980s, has died aged 88. Donahue, who died on August 18, was well known in the United States for launching the daytime television talk show genre. His Cold War programs were known as Citizen Summits and featured simultaneous broadcasts from a city within each country where studio audiences could ask questions of one another. Donahue and Soviet television journalist Vladimir Posner moderated each of their respective audiences. In the 1990s, the pair also co-hosted a weekly issues roundtable on U.S. business broadcaster CNBC. To read the full story by RFE/RL’s Russian service, click here.