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He next surfaced in 1961 in Cleveland, where a onetime Chicago colleague hired him for $ 400 a week as an afternoon television talk-show host at WKYC-TV, then known as KYW-TV.

The Mike Douglas Show rapidly gained popularity, and ultimately, national syndication in August 1963 on the five Westinghouse-owned stations.

The show was broadcast " live " on KYW-TV in its city of origination, but this practice ended in 1965 after guest Zsa Zsa Gabor used inappropriate language on-the-air when referring to stand-up comedian and comic actor Morey Amsterdam of the Dick Van Dyke Show.

As KYW-TV's owner, Group W, successfully had a station swap with NBC overturned by the FCC.

Westinghouse returned to Philadelphia on June 19, 1965 with call letters KYW-TV.

Along with the station swap came The Mike Douglas Show, which aired its first Philadelphia-based show on August 30, 1965.

Even after ownership reverted back to NBC, WKYC in Cleveland continued to carry the program for many years afterward.

Guests ranged from Truman Capote and Richard Nixon to The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits and Kiss, with an occasional on-camera appearance from Tim Conway ( who would later be discovered at WJW ).

Moe Howard of " Three Stooges " fame was a guest several times, with a pie-fight inevitably happening at the end of the interview and platform speaker on nonverbal communication ( body language ) Dr. Cody Sweet.

The show helped introduce entertainers such as Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin.

After the move to Philadelphia, Douglas also attempted to revive his own singing career, logging his lone Top 40 single as a solo artist, " The Men In My Little Girl's Life " in 1966.

By 1967, The Mike Douglas Show was broadcast to 171 markets and 6, 000, 000 viewers each day, mostly women at home.

It earned $ 10. 5 million from advertisers, while its host was paid more than $ 500, 000.

In 1967, the program received the first Emmy Award for Individual Achievement in Daytime Television from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Most weeks, Douglas would be joined by a co-host, including Liberace, Cesar Romero, Jackie Gleason, Joan Fontaine, Anne Baxter, Jimmy Dean, Richard Thomas, Florence Henderson, Brooke Shields, Shelley Berman, Richard Pryor, Dyan Cannon, Suzanne Somers, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Minnie Pearl, Shirley Bassey, Bobby Darin, Tony Randall, Kaye Ballard, Totie Fields, David Brenner, Ted Knight, Bernadette Peters, Kate Jackson, Harry Chapin, Rod McKuen, Cicely Tyson, Karen Valentine, Johnny Mathis, Joel Grey, Carol Channing, Anne Murray, Anthony Newley, Marvin Hamlisch, Patty Duke, Cher, Mel Tillis, Steve Lawrence, Martha Raye, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Frankie Avalon, Charlton Heston, Gordon MacRae, Richard Harris, Red Buttons, Billy Crystal, David Steinberg, Hugh O ' Brian, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Sly Stone, John Lennon & Yoko Ono.

In July 1978, the talk show's home base was transferred to Los Angeles, where it remained until finally going off the air in 1982.

A second series, The Mike Douglas Entertainment Hour, ended production in 1982, after which Douglas hosted CNN's Los Angeles-based celebrity interview show, People Now, taking over the hosting duties from Lee Leonard.

He was replaced in January 1983 by WTBS personality Bill Tush.