Talk-show legend Phil Donahue is signing off MSNBC. After just seven months,
MSNBC has axed his prime-time talk show.
Donahue hosted his last show Monday night with Rosie O'Donnell as his guest.
MSNBC will air reruns the rest of this week and then extend its 7 p.m.
Countdown: Iraq newscast with Lester Holt for an extra hour.
"We're proud of the program and we're disappointed that the show was not able
to attract the viewership we had hoped for and expected," MSNBC president Erik
Sorenson said in a prepared statement.
Donahue's curtain call had been expected for several months, although his
ratings had improved slightly since MSNBC moved him into Rockefeller Center with
a studio audience late last year.
Donahue had been the centerpiece of MSNBC's relaunch last summer to more
opinion and talk programming.
However, the show never amounted to much competition for Cable News Network's Connie Chung
and did not dent Bill O'Reilly's viewership on Fox News Channel.
