The television program, later known simply as Donahue, was the first popular talk show to feature a format that included audience participation.

After a brief stint as a bank check sorter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating.

[9] He moved on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and later, an anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, where his interviews with Jimmy Hoffa and Billie Sol Estes were picked up nationally.

In Dayton, Donahue interviewed presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, late-night talk show host Johnny Carson,[10] human rights activist Malcolm X, and Vietnam war opponents including Jerry Rubin.

[11] In Chicago and New York City, Donahue interviewed Elton John,[12] heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier,[13] and author and political activist Noam Chomsky.

[22][23] Soon after the show's cancellation, an internal MSNBC memo was leaked to the press stating that Donahue should be fired because he opposed the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq and that he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war"[24] and that his program could be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda".

[25] Donahue commented in 2007 that the management of MSNBC, owned at the time by General Electric, a major defense contractor, required that "we have two conservative (guests) for every liberal.

The film tells the story of Tomas Young, a severely disabled Iraq War veteran and his turbulent postwar adjustments.

In November 2007, the film was named as one of fifteen documentaries to be in consideration for an Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[28][29] Donahue was interviewed for the documentary film Finding Vivian Maier (2013), about the posthumously recognized American street photographer and an acquaintance of his from the 1970s.

[35] Donahue's 1958 marriage to Margaret Cooney produced five children – Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Mary Rose, and James – but ended in divorce in 1975.

[41] Donahue died following a long illness at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, on August 18, 2024, at the age of 88.