Dr. Phil Gets Addicted Guests Wasted Backstage

If you’ve never seen The Dr. Phil Show before, the show basically revolves around host Phil McGraw telling people to get their s**t together with a folksy accent, sometimes throwing in some nonsensical Appalachian turn of phrase like “If you let the fox in the henhouse then the rooster and the dog will have to hunt in the pigpen.”

It turns out McGraw’s production team has allegedly been getting addicts drunk and high before sending them out on stage, presumably to make it easier for Dr. Phil to lecture them about their shitty choices.

The medical news website STAT, along with a reporter from The Boston Globe, published an in-depth expose on the backstage behavior where addicts were given liquor and drugs before being sent on stage.

“I’ve never talked to a guest who was closer to death,” show host Phillip McGraw declared on camera.

TV viewers, however, didn’t see the setup for this shocking scene. Herzog, who was battling alcoholism, told STAT and the Boston Globe that he was not intoxicated when he arrived at the Los Angeles studio. In his dressing room, he said he found a bottle of Smirnoff vodka. He drank all of it. Then someone handed him a Xanax, he said, telling him it would “calm his nerves.”

Okay, so, before I start here, don’t give alcohol to an alcoholic. It’s just a bad idea. On the other hand, if you drink an entire bottle of vodka in the green room of a TV show, maybe that s**t is on you. No one made him drink an entire bottle of vodka. Sure, leaving it there was a shitty thing, but they didn’t pour it down his throat. He could have not drank it; there are plenty of recovering alcoholics who turn down drinks every day.

Guests have been left without medical help as they face withdrawal from drugs, a STAT/Boston Globe investigation has found, and one person said she was directed by a show staff member to an open-air drug market to find heroin for her detoxing niece.

Well, okay, Dr. Phil production crew, I tried to defend you and you broke my heart. I mean, not really, I kind of hated you already and I’m sort of relishing your fall. If you get replaced by a soap opera, I’m totally going to submit a writing packet, so that’s what I’m hoping for here. And everyone is going to be on my side because you sent someone out with a camera crew to score heroin for an addict.

So what did The Dr. Phil Show have to say about these allegations? Well, here’s a statement from Martin Greenberg, the “director of professional affairs”.

“Addicts are notorious for lying, deflecting and trivializing. But, if they are at risk when they arrive, then they were at risk before they arrived,” Greenberg said in the statement. “The only change is they are one step closer to getting help, typically help they could not have even come close to affording.”

Oh, f**k you buddy. That’s some bullshit. “Well, they’re liars, and even if they’re not they’re poors”.

Is anyone really surprised to find out that The Dr. Phil Show is more about ratings than it is about helping people? It’s compelling television when a drunk reality TV guest staggers out on stage and then a charismatic southern doctor dresses him down and makes him take a breathalyzer test. That’s not done to help the guy out, it’s done because they need a compelling act break. Honestly, I expected better from Dr. Phil, like asking if it’s okay to have sex with someone who’s passed out drunk.