Dr. Phil’s choice to name it quits final week got here months after producers tried and did not revamp the long-running daytime present in a determined bid to lure again skittish advertisers, The New York Publish has realized.
After years of Dr. Phil staging dramatic “interventions” with wayward teenagers and squabbling households — and in some instances being accused of exploiting the troubles of celebrities like Britney Spears and Shelley Duvall — insiders at US community CBS have been involved that viewers and advertisers alike have been lumping in Dr. Phil with different “quack doctors” who’ve left TV in recent times, a number of sources advised The Publish.
Certainly, regardless of the very fact “Dr. Phil” averaged greater than 2 million US viewers within the 3pm timeslot — the second-highest rated present in daytime American TV behind ABC’s Reside with Ryan and Kelly, in keeping with Nielsen — the present had turn into radioactive for a lot of sponsors, in keeping with sources near the state of affairs.
“The advertising queue was all but dead,” one insider stated. “The show was relying on CBS to book ads as opposed to relying on Dr. Phil’s brand.”
“With that timeslot, you start on home base,” one other supply stated. “But he couldn’t hit any more home runs.”
A decade in the past, high company manufacturers that backed “Dr. Phil” — which airs on Channel 10 in Australia — included American Categorical, Allstate and Common Mills.
However throughout an episode final week, industrial breaks have been ridden with spots for vitamin dietary supplements, personal-injury legislation corporations, public-service bulletins on vaccines and quitting smoking — in addition to a number of in-house adverts for different CBS reveals.
“There was clearly a cash issue,” one other insider advised The Publish. “They have not had advertisers of the past stay on. This includes household consumer brands.”
In response, because the twenty first season of “Dr. Phil” launched in September, CBS employed a brand new govt producer who wished to place the emphasis on Phil McGraw’s medical bona fides. The present turned to extra substantive subjects like “medical gaslighting” somewhat than interpersonal drama, in keeping with a be aware obtained by The Publish.
One fall episode tackled “Inclusivity or Indoctrination? What’s Happening in Schools Today?” — the place McGraw and a panel of consultants mentioned transgender politics in colleges.
Different reveals this season targeted on arduous information tales like gun violence and antisemitic hate crimes. Nonetheless, bookers for the present have had bother lining up big-name panellists, sources declare.
“Dr. Phil was trying to siphon the credibility from other doctors they’re trying to book as guests … but they’re struggling to get credible guests,” one insider advised The Publish.
The Publish reached out to CBS for remark. A spokesperson for McGraw declined to remark.
It’s a dramatic flip from only a few years in the past when Dr. Phil’s programming was targeted on serving to troubled teenagers just like the now well-known “cash me outside” lady and serving to girls depart poisonous relationships.
Insiders add that some at CBS consider Phil’s TV persona had grown uncomfortably near that of one other daytime TV physician — Mehmet Oz, who was operating for a US Senate seat on the time of the season launch.
Rankings for Oz — who had run into his personal controversies over pushing different medicines and fad diets — had begun to tank even earlier than his candidacy for the Pennsylvania seat.
Whereas Dr. Phil’s rankings had dwarfed these of Oz, producers more and more feared that viewers would “lump television doctors together”, in keeping with a supply.
“There are some people who don’t know the difference between Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil,” the supply stated, including that producers say they really feel strongly there may be “a Dr. Oz dip”.
Dr. Phil’s wholesale rebranding efforts got here after the present final summer time lower 25 staffers in an effort to “streamline production to ensure longevity”.
A spokesperson for the present stated the lay-offs are “typical …. there were some roles we discovered that we could reduce yet still deliver our dynamic, forward-thinking program”.
Final yr, Buzzfeed Information reported workers who labored on the present “experienced verbal abuse in a workplace that fosters fear, intimidation, and racism” and have been “manipulated and treated unethically”. The present didn’t handle these considerations.
Attorneys for McGraw and govt producer Carla Pennington categorically denied the allegations made within the piece, insisting that Dr. Phil on no account fosters racism, inappropriate interactions with company, bullying and harassment, or some other unprofessional behaviour.
The present is slated to run by Could. CBS Media Ventures, which produces “Dr. Phil,” will supply stations library episodes of the present for the 2023-2024 season and past. The basic episodes will embrace new content material akin to wrap-arounds and intros by McGraw, in addition to visitor updates.
McGraw — who acquired his huge break on Oprah 25 years in the past, charming audiences together with his folksy takes on social points — stated his subsequent chapter will concentrate on a “strategic prime time partnership” that can “increase his impact on television and viewers”.
He didn’t point out issues with advertisers in asserting his choice to go away.
“I am compelled to engage with a broader audience because I have grave concerns for the American family, and I am determined to help restore a clarity of purpose as well as our core values,” McGraw stated.
This text was initially printed by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
Initially printed as ‘All but dead’: Where it all went wrong for Dr Phil
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