For 20 years, Dr Phil McGraw was a staple of daytime television, inviting people facing serious struggles to discuss their lives with a clinical psychologist while a studio audience — and viewers nationwide — watched.
Now, a new docuseries titled Dirty Rotten Scandals revisits his career and assembles a range of allegations from former staff and past guests of Dr Phil, painting a picture of what some claim was a harmful culture off-camera.
Airing Wednesday (March 4) as a two-part release, the documentary tracks McGraw’s path to fame and revisits investigations and legal disputes that surrounded the program before it ended in 2023. Many of the claims spotlighted in the series have been disputed.
In response to accusations raised by anonymous former employees and guests, McGraw’s attorneys said they reject the portrayal presented in the docuseries.
Dr Phil’s attorneys have responded, telling Us Magazine that he ‘categorically denies the allegations referenced in this film’.
“These claims are not new and have previously been raised, thoroughly addressed, and refuted. They are false, misleading, and lack factual foundation.
“Any implication that Dr. McGraw or the production of the program engaged in improper, unethical, or unlawful conduct is inaccurate … the program operated with established standards and with the intent of providing resources, information, and support to participants and audiences.”
Long before he became widely known through appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s, McGraw worked in the health-and-wellness space while pursuing his psychology PhD, including a role managing a health spa.
According to the E! series, the spa later faced old allegations from critics who claimed customers were misled after buying costly memberships — an accusation that was denied. The documentary draws a line from that controversy to a later lawsuit involving a weight-loss supplement that resulted in a multimillion-dollar payout.
Investigative journalist Evan Allen explained:
“He was a manager of the Grecian Health Spa, which had been selling these pretty expensive time memberships.
“They were like $150 to $700 memberships. They’re advertising these memberships in the newspaper — and they suddenly shut the doors and just vanish.”
The docuseries links those claims to the later “Shape Up” supplement case, which Allen argues mirrors the earlier allegations.
She alleged:
“That kind of behavior of selling expensive spa memberships to a spa — that suddenly ceases to exist — looks an awful lot like selling Shape Up. That was a weight loss supplement that he was marketing as 22 pills that you take every day depending on whether you’re apple-shaped or pear-shaped.
“A few years later, he had to pay a $10.5 million settlement to people who had purchased Shape Up because they didn’t do anything.”
McGraw has continued to deny wrongdoing connected to the settlement, which involved claims from purchasers who said the product had no effect.
The E! documentary also revisits allegations reported in 2022, when former staff members spoke anonymously to BuzzFeed and described intimidation and verbal abuse in the workplace.
At the time, his attorney provided a statement to Us Weekly, responding:
“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.”
The statement also argued McGraw was not involved in staffing decisions and denied the kind of conduct alleged.
They claimed that the host was not involved in staffing, continuing:
“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.”
In Dirty Rotten Scandals, additional anonymous onetime employees repeat criticisms of the show’s internal culture, including claims that leadership was domineering and that production practices were unethical.
The series also features accounts from past guests among the show’s 3,505 episodes, with several describing pressure to appear and saying they later felt embarrassed by how their stories were presented.
As described in the documentary, paperwork provided to participants stated that therapy should not be expected, despite the program’s premise. Allen read from the documents and criticized what she said guests were required to sign away.
Allen read it out, stating:
“Dr. Phil does not and will not administer individual group or medical therapy. You have to agree that you will not sue for invasion of privacy, defamation, infliction of emotional distress.
“You give up all your rights to go on the show before you go on it. And then you go on a show and you’re horrifically humiliated in front of America. Then you’re like, ‘Oh, I signed away the rights to do anything about this. I can’t even talk about it.’”
Dirty Rotten Scandals further examines questions about treatment facilities recommended on the program, including whether such referrals functioned as advertising or benefited people linked to production.
Allen claimed:
“All of these segments with the plug for the treatment facility, it was just obvious advertising.
“The show has a predictable arc where you go from seeing the person at their worst to Dr. Phil passes judgment and then he says, ‘I’m going to send you to the best addiction treatment facility in the country.’
“There are tons of treatment centers linked to the show: Aspen Educational Origins, Turnabout Ranch, Creative Care and an enormous number of others.”
McGraw’s lawyers rejected wrongdoing related to those referrals. However, the documentary notes claims involving a longtime staffer, Anthony Haskins, who it says remained connected to certain facilities referenced by the show.
According to the series, attorneys for the program said they did not know Haskins — the on-camera aftercare specialist — had continued what the documentary characterizes as a “dog and pony show for money” with one of the centers.
The docuseries also recounts a high-profile lawsuit involving a former segment producer. In 2015, Leah Rothman sued McGraw, alleging emotional distress and false imprisonment.
Rothman’s claims centered on a staff meeting in which she alleged McGraw demanded the doors be locked while he berated employees he believed were leaking information. The case was settled in 2018.
After reading paper work from the case, Allen said:
“She talked in particular about this meeting where she and a whole bunch of people — she says 300 — who worked on The Dr. Phil Show were put in a single room and Dr. Phil entered the room and demanded the door be locked.
“Dr. Phil walks in and he says, ‘I have security guards at every door. Nobody leaves. I want to know who did it. You have 10 minutes to come forward.’ It was me, with you. Someone on staff had gotten an interview and they had tried to sell it. Dr. Phil had a deal with the outlet so he knew who had leaked it.”
Even after the lawsuit, the series argues that scrutiny continued over the show’s handling of both staff and vulnerable guests. It also highlights reporting connected to a Boston Globe investigation led by Allen, which the documentary claims was halted after legal pressure.
Allen said on Dirty Rotten Scandals:
“We basically split our big reporting into two stories published on back to back days. We were getting tips faster than we could record them. Then we got this letter from Dr. Phil’s attorney demanding retraction. Just saying the whole story was wrong and we needed to take it all back.
“We were ready as part of the fight — and we were right. You can get sued all day long if you’re right.”
Allen claimed:
“But they included something I’ve never seen before, a letter to the owner of the Boston Globe.
“This letter said, ‘If we sue you, it is going to be really expensive.’ It was a pretty clear financial threat. This was the only time in my career that’s ever happened but the Globe told us there was no appetite for a legal fight. So that was it. The project got shut down.”
The Boston Globe categorically denied Allen’s claim, saying:
“Having published two comprehensive articles that we stand by up to this day. The allegation is absolutely false.”