After 21 seasons of sensational programming focused on everything from delinquent offspring to rampant substance abuse to extramarital affairs, Dr. Phil, the hit daytime talk show led by Dr. Phil McGraw, will end after its current season per the host’s choice, Variety reported Tuesday.
It’s the end of an era for the authoritative, Southern-accented TV star, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology but is not a licensed therapist. For years, the show lured droves of audiences (and continues to average 2 million viewers per episode) with McGraw’s pointed interviews with troubled guests, which could be as hilarious as they were harrowing, despite the fact that the show is itself a consistent magnet for lawsuits, scandals, and criticism.
Off-screen storms
One of the host’s early controversies involved Britney Spears during the peak of her mid-aughts mental health struggles; in January 2008, McGraw was permitted to visit her while she was being hospitalized for a mental breakdown. He later made public statements about the visit that alienated Spears’ family and left them chastising McGraw for betraying their trust. In response to criticism that he was trying to insert himself into the story purely for entertainment value, McGraw canceled a planned episode of Dr. Phil about Spears’ situation.
More recently, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, McGraw caught flack for questioning the need for social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.
“The fact of the matter is we have people dying, 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,” McGraw had said on Laura Ingraham’s The Ingraham Angle. “But yet we are doing it for this and the fallout is going to last for years because people’s lives are being destroyed.”
Legal battles abound
Those off-screen antics are just the tip of the iceberg, as McGraw is no stranger to lawsuits stemming from his divisive show. In 2021, a woman who alleged that she was sexually assaulted at a ranch in Utah sued McGraw and ViacomCBS for negligence after the host had recommended she be sent there on an episode of Dr. Phil. The show was also sued for defamation by Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, two suspects in the case of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
In another lawsuit, Shirley Rae Dieu alleged that during a taping session at the Dr. Phil House for an episode that eventually aired in 2007, she had been held against her will and “forced to be in the same room with a completely live naked man while he exposed his entire naked body, genitals and all.”
“All of Shirley Rae Dieu’s claims are without merit,” Dr. Phil’s lawyers responded in a statement. “Once Ms. Dieu expressed her discomfort, and producers ascertained there was nothing they could do to help her, they called a car service to return her to her home.”
