Phil, other celebrities spoke out about how obviously exploitative it was. In 2016, when The Shining star Shelley Duvall - who has been vocal about her mental health struggles - was featured on Dr. Even in reruns, he kills.Ī reconsideration of McGraw’s work has sort of begun, but his critics tend to get more attention when the targets of his “advice” are well known. Phil hit 150 weeks as the top-rated syndicated daytime talk show, with an average daily audience of 2.9 million viewers. He’s also still incredibly successful - in July 2019, Dr. Phil is just Jerry Springer in a better suit. Worse, his focus on women and teenage girls who have been abused means the show is now designed to go after people who can rarely defend themselves against a television behemoth. What may have started as a show intended to make therapy and open communication more accessible to people at home has warped into a creepy, exploitative program. Television therapy, then, is what people get instead, and McGraw doesn’t just give bad advice, but he openly mocks the people coming to him for help. Affordable care is hard to access, and that’s if you have any coverage at all. Mental healthcare around the country is lacking. He’s signed on to host the show through to 2023, into Dr Phil’s 21st season. In 2020, McGraw made $65.5 million, all on the backs of thousands of people who came to him and his producers, desperate for help. Oz has faced plenty of controversy, McGraw continues to thrive. Don’t get me wrong, Oz deserves it: He hawks vitamins you don’t need, anti-science rhetoric about weight loss and hydroxychloroquine, and even argued that increased deaths due to schools opening mid-pandemic might be worth it. Oz, possibly the other worst thing Winfrey unleashed upon an unsuspecting public, gets most of the smoke when it comes to talking about the failure of television healthcare professionals. The show’s sole purpose is now seemingly all about displaying people’s difficulties in their crudest forms, and less about actually trying to help them.ĭr. There are episodes exploiting people’s devastating alcohol addictions, older men and women getting catfished by a fake Nikki Sixx, and a constant parade of “bad teenagers” eventually set right after being referred to a horse-centric boarding school. In my adulthood, I started watching the show again just as a kind of familiar background noise, and discovered that it had morphed into something much more caustic and ugly. After an awkward hour of watching McGraw berate the parents, my mother would turn to me and ask: “So what did you learn?” The real answer was “absolutely nothing,” but the one that got her off my back was “don’t go near a boy.” Phil in junior high, an after-school activity my mother made me do with her as some botched attempt to get us to talk about “serious topics.” She made me watch the teen episodes in particular - ones where young girls were seduced by nameless gangs (this was not a risk for me) or hard drugs (weed, it was only ever just weed). If you have more information or a tip regarding your experience on Dr. He’s not actually anyone’s doctor, but he speaks with the authority of someone who thinks he is. McGraw would sit with his guests and offer “psychological” advice, masked in the approachable language of a life coach or high school guidance counselor. Phil confirmed that he ceased renewing his license in 2006 “as he no longer worked as a therapist.”)Įarly episodes featured couples in troubled marriages, people trying to lose weight, and other topics relevant to the show’s target demographic of people available to watch an hour of television at 3 in the afternoon. McGraw holds a doctorate in psychology, but stopped renewing his license in 2006, and has never held a valid psychology license in California, where the show is filmed. Phil premiered nearly 20 years ago as an Oprah Winfrey–endorsed platform for McGraw. It’s not entirely clear why she came to McGraw of all people for help, and the show seems far more inclined to zero in on her confusion and intoxication.ĭr. “I don’t know,” she says, over and over again. Phil) asks her repeatedly where she’s going, she looks like a lost child. When Phil McGraw (more commonly known as Dr. She rambles and at one point, starts to walk away from her chair. She’s very clearly intoxicated, disheveled, and isn’t wearing any shoes. But unlike other shows - or even an old Oprah episode - she isn’t coiffed or remotely prepared for the interview. Phil aired an episode about a 56-year-old woman named JoLynn with an alcohol addiction.
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