It wasn’t all that long ago when daytime television was considered a top priority for new program development and marketing by networks and local stations alike. When Oprah Winfrey took the world by storm when her local Chicago talk show went national in 1986, far eclipsing the success of similar rollouts of the past like DONAHUE and even the MIKE DOUGLAS variety show, talk show production exploded. Winfrey’s mix of controversial and emotional topics, along with some celebrities huckstering books and/or movies allowed multiple shows to be taped at once, and its immense success produced regular contributors that found their own success. Phil McGraw was perhaps the most successful of all of them.
I first discovered the show not long after its high-profile launch on CBS-owned stations, the first significant by-product of Oprah’s syndication partners King World being integrated into the larger Viacom family, with Paramount selling the show to compete with Oprah in many markets. With a significantly older and somewhat less minority-driven audience, McGraw’s show found success of its own at an opportune time, when promotion was still a priority and his “country psychologist” shtick seen as credible in a far less snarky and splintered world. I watched several episodes by default while I recovered from surgery in a hospital annoyingly devoid of English-language cable channels, and in its time slot little else appealed to me. I have to admit, I was hooked for a while.
But in more recent years, as the show’s national ratings (like almost all daytime syndicated shows) have eroded and his audience grown even older and whiter, and with his core station group base far more committed to the evolution and multiplatforming of its local news as its primary focus, Phil’s act has grown a little stale. Not to mention that we learned a bit more about his tactics than its producers might have preferred we not know: As Rolling Stone’s Nancy Dillon reported in October, 2021:
A COLORADO TEEN who alleges she was sexually assaulted at a Utah facility for “troubled” youth is suing Phil McGraw and ViacomCBS for negligence, alleging the star of the popular Dr. Phil show and his staff recommended and arranged for her treatment at Turn-About Ranch.
Plaintiff Hannah Archuleta, 19, says in her complaint filed this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court that she was shipped off to the ranch in Escalante, Utah, when she was 17 after appearing on an episode of Dr. Phil with her parents in October 2019.
The 26-page complaint obtained by Rolling Stone claims McGraw and show staff made glowing statements about the ranch and “pressured” Archuleta’s dad to send her there immediately while negligently failing to mention the “various complaints and charges of physical and emotional harm that befell minors sent to the facility.”
The lawsuit says one such red flag involved a 2012 lawsuit claiming ranch staff subjected a 15-year-old girl to threats of suffocation, physical abuse that left her bleeding, sleep deprivation, and stress positions akin to “torture.”
Archuleta and her lawyer Gloria Allred say in the lawsuit that Dr. Phil, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology but is not licensed to practice, pulled Archuleta’s dad into his private office before they appeared in front of a live studio audience and personally vouched for Turn-About Ranch.
“Hannah needs to go to the Ranch to have any chance at a good life. It’s that serious we help her right now and today,” Dr. Phil, whose full name is Phil McGraw, allegedly said, according to the lawsuit. “At the Ranch, Hannah will be in a safe environment, eat well, be treated well, and have multiple therapies.”
The lawsuit claims Hannah’s parents told a segment producer their daughter had struggled with suicidal thoughts and alleges they were warned not to bring up the issue again for liability purposes.
After the show taping, Hannah was taken directly from the soundstage in Los Angeles to the ranch in Utah. There, she was sexually assaulted twice by a male staff member, the lawsuit claims.
So when you combine this kind of “publicity” with the reality of today’s business models, it was no surprise that yesterday that very same publication picked up this news:
Dr. Phil, a fixture among daytime television talk shows, will end its run of original episodes this spring after airing 21 seasons, Variety reports.
CBS sources emphasized that host, Dr. Phil McGraw, 72, made the call to stop producing new episodes at the end of the current 2022-2023 season, per the report.
Distributor CBS Media Ventures hopes to keep the syndicated Dr. Phil on the air with a package of repeats through at least the 2023-24 season. During the pandemic, Dr. Phil drew criticism for arguing in favor of ending state lockdowns in order to stimulate the economy, and comparing COVID-19 deaths to car crash fatalities and swimming pool drownings in the process.
Still, Dr. Phil managed to hang onto an average of about 2 million viewers per episode, per Variety, making it the second highest-rated daytime talk show behind Disney’s “Live With Kelly and Ryan.”
Yep, the old doctor didn’t do a lot to reinvigorate his reputation in recent years, did he? Indeed, at the outset of the pandemic, he REALLY pissed off coiumnist EJ Dickson:
Professional charlatan Dr. Phil is garnering intense criticism for arguing in favor of ending state lockdowns in order to stimulate the economy, comparing COVID-19 deaths to car crash fatalities and swimming pool drownings in the process.
“People are dying from the coronavirus. I get that,” the good doctor generously conceded on (Laura) Ingraham’s show. “But the fact of the matter is, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don’t shut the country down for that.” At least two of these statistics are actually wrong; per the National Safety Council, 38,800 people in the U.S. died from car crashes last year, and per the CDC, there are a little more than 3,500 nonboating-related drowning deaths a year in the United States, not all of which are specifically in swimming pools.
Dr. Phil (who has a Ph.D. in psychology, not medicine) is in good company in adding his voice to the chorus of daytime TV-famous doctors-cum-talk-show-hosts who have made misleading, if not outright inaccurate, comments about COVID-19 and social distancing. Earlier this week, Dr. Mehmet Oz argued in favor of reopening schools on Fox News, referring to it as “an appetizing opportunity” and inaccurately paraphrasing a Lancet article by saying “the opening of schools may only cost us two to three percent in terms of total mortality.” (The Lancet review actually argued in favor of social distancing, stating that closing schools alone would prevent only two to three percent of COVID-19 deaths; Dr. Oz later apologized for his comments, saying he “misspoke.”),
Well, CBSMV can spin that the decision to end new production was Phil’s alone, and at his age, and with his net worth, that’s probably somewhat true. But since an awful lot of daytime viewers, particularly those that are the most frequent, have the kind of mindset that feverishly believe it’s still not safe to even leave their homes, his credibility has undoubtedly diminished along with the size of his audience. And considering that a number of other staples of daytime television that don’t rely on celebrity promotions are already running rerun packages (e.g. JUDGE JUDY, JERRY SPRINGER and MAURY) with enough of its earlier audience still watching as to satisfy the diminished expectations of stations, CBS made the economically smart call that if his remaining fans look the other way despite this disclosures, they probably aren’t all that savvy to the fact that the “resolution” of an earlier episode is something they already saw, or still have enough interest in to watch again.
For those of us who remember the glory days of syndicated talk shows, when riots broke out on daytime TV and warranted enough attention to make front page news, perhaps the end of new production on DR. PHIL–and, remember, by today’s standards, it’s still a top-tier series–is a bit more disturbing. Certainly, for those legitimate segment producers and crew that have had a stable source of income for two decades, it’s particularly upsetting. But the numbers simply just don’t justify any crying need to make new shows, particularly for a program with more than enough in the can to stick around for a long time.
And, truth be told, McGraw’s doing fine, thank you. He’s left open the door for some new ventures, just like Ms. Schiendlin has done with the production of JUDY JUSTICE for Amazon Freevee. He’s the executive producer of CBS’ SO HELP ME TODD and was involved with BULL, a show loosely based on his early days where he advised trial attorneys, that recently completed six successful seasons on CBS. I’m fairly certain some outlet, perhaps outside the Paramount Global family, will throw him a bone.
Hmmm…let’s see…if DUCK DYNASTY and Roseanne Barr can find new life…maybe a good ol’ Oklahoma shrink might be a nice compliment?
Until next time…