Dr. Phil to cease playing pretend TV doctor this spring
After 21 seasons of yelling at people seeking help, Dr. Phil is calling it a day
The doctor is out.
Dr. Phil, the long-running daytime television show in which a guy without a medical license yells at vulnerable people seeking help until he determines they’re cured, is coming to an end. This spring, the series will wrap its 21 seasons on CBS, opening the door for another one of Oprah’s grifter buddies to come in and fill the void.
Phil McGraw, who stopped renewing his medical license in 2006, will continue to play pretend doctor on television in all likelihood. As Variety notes, he plans on announcing a “strategic primetime partnership” that will allow him “increase his impact on television and viewers” because he’s “compelled to engage with a broader audience.” McGraw says he has “grave concerns for the American family,” which means he presumably wants more teens on his television show to yell at and diagnose.
Like his fellow Oprah university graduate, Dr. Oz, McGraw started wowing daytime television audiences in the late 90s. His first television special, where he says a young boy has more “characteristics of a serial killer” than Jeffrey Dahmer, was hailed as “incredibly irresponsible” by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.