For decades, millions of viewers have tuned in to watch Dr. Phil .
The show got its start in the ‘ 90s after Dr. Phil — who has a doctorate in clinical psychology but isn’t licensed — rose to stardom doing segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show .
“I try very much to do what works, and to meet people where they are,” Dr. Phil said after one of his shows in 2003. “And if what I’m doing isn’t working for that person, I change it and do something that will.”
Flash-forward to the present and Dr. Phil McGraw is now under fire for fostering a “toxic workplace.”
While his show largely centers on mental health issues, behind-the-scenes told a different story. In an investigative report by Buzzfeed, current and former employees have shared the verbal abuse they experienced in a workplace that allegedly fosters fear, intimation, and racism.
“Everyone was just pretty miserable. You would walk into the building and there was just a palpable dread and anxiety,” one former employee said.
“Dr. Phil — the show about mental health where everybody who works on it has terrible mental health because our work conditions were really bad.”
The eleven employees who have come forward have even asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation and retribution.
While none of these employees witnessed Dr. Phil directly acting toxic or abusive, some say that he was aware of it.
Some of this behavior included being screamed and berated at by executive producer Carla Pennington, along with other senior-level staffers.
Some of the insults they say she screamed included calling people “idiots,” “stupid,” and threatening to fire people.
This toxic environment also allegedly extended to guests.
While guests come on the show for all different reasons, mental health is usually at the center of it all. But instead of an environment that made guests feel safe and welcome, former employees say that the show crossed several lines .
One former employee, for instance, said that this included messing with guests’ medication.
“We were specifically instructed, ‘Make sure that she doesn’t take her medication before she goes onstage,’ because they wanted her to look unstable and quote-unquote, ‘crazy,’ for lack of a better term,” the employee said.
Other employees said that they were encouraged to tell potential guests whatever they wanted to hear in order to secure the booking.
A 2018 email obtained by Buzzfeed News confirmed this manipulation. “The less you share with guests the better,” it read.
It continued:
“They are on a NEED to know basis…you all do a great job of convincing them you’re friends, just make sure you keep a firm line in the sand & not say too much they will be the first ones to throw you under the bus (TRUST ME).”
Employees were also encouraged to find guests who appeared upper-middle-class and “not like trailer trash.”
Without proper training or guidance, it was their job to get a picture of their teeth and to ask personal questions about their mental health and sexual history.
They were also discouraged from booking people of color.
“We walk this really weird tightrope of booking people whose stories are just juicy enough for TV without being straight-up illegal,”
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They continued by saying:
“But we also kind of blur the lines on what we choose to share in the story to make it palatable for network television,” a former employee explained. “It feels very ethically inappropriate.”
The talk show host has since denied these allegations against him and his show.
“It’s a clickbait story because Dr. Phil ‘sells tickets.’ BuzzFeed was offered dozens of current and former staff to talk to but when the reporter started hearing the truth which ruined their salacious narrative they declined,” McGraw’s attorney , H. Patrick Morris, said in a statement.
“Dr. Phil focuses on content for the program,”
“And doesn’t get involved in staff relations, but the staff at the program in no way use ethnic origin such as described.”
Pennington’s attorney has also denied allegations, calling Buzzfeed’s story “a work of fiction.”
We’ll have to wait and see how this all develops.
For the full story of allegations against The Dr. Phil Show, read it here .
H/T: Buzzfeed
