A Talk Show , the program featured light banter with guests and musical performances. Each week would have a different co-host who would appear every day with Douglas. A former Big Band singer, Douglas moved to television in the 1950s . The ''Mike Douglas Show'' started in 1961 in Cleveland as a local show on Westinghouse's KYW-TV , it proved popular and, in 1963 , was syndicated to five stations. By 1967 the show was available in 171 markets and seen by an audience of six million viewers a day. The program was broadcast live until 1965 when off-color on air remarks by Zsa Zsa Gabor (she called Morey Amsterdam a "son of a bitch") prompted producers to decide to tape the show ahead of broadcast from then on.
The show moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia where it remained from 1965 until 1978 , when it moved to Los Angeles until the end of its run in 1981 .
