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‘Dr. Phil’s 10 Most Controversial Guests, Ranked Find help us

In a reality television genre filled with controversial topics, few series are as infamous as Dr. Phil. Created by Oprah Winfrey and the titular host, Phil McGraw, this series premiered more than a decade ago and promised viewers a scintillating case of bad mental health each episode. It offered audiences some of the most sensationalized cases that television had ever seen, with the doctor ‘counseling’ these people with advice that even audiences at the time saw as questionable.

It’s easy to view much of this show as harmful in retrospect, but there was a point when the general American audience saw Dr. Phil as a true source of mental health wisdom that people could tune into and learn (while gasping at the dramatic examples of people’s lives falling apart, of course). The series introduced more and more contentious characters as the years went on in the hopes of keeping its viewers tuned in — let’s count them down now and finally learn who, in a franchise built by shocking guests, is the most controversial of them all.

10

Levi Johnston – Sarah Palin’s (Almost) Son-in-Law

Image via Harpo Productions

Most Dr. Phil guests are controversial because of the uniquely messed up situations that they bring, but in the case of Levi Johnston, this episode is remembered as messy for a whole different reason: American politics. Johnston was the two-time almost fiancée of Bristol Palin, daughter of 2008 Vice-President hopeful Sarah Palin, who’d announced that the pair were expecting a baby and would be getting married very soon.

That marriage never came to fruition — even after a second engagement announcement — and Johnston appeared on Dr. Phil to re-affirm to the audience (who really hadn’t been questioning him) that he was a good father, and he hoped to re-kindle his relationship with Bristol. Tame when compared to the other topics on this show, but due to its proximity to American politics, this is remembered as one of the wildest cases ever allowed on the show.

9

Treasure – The Girl Who Hated Her Own Race

Treasure, a young woman, looks despondent, sitting on the stage of the Dr. Phil TV show.
Image via Harpo Productions

The Dr. Phil series lives on largely through the jokes that modern viewers have made out of his more scandalous interviews, with few receiving more online attention than the girl who hated her own race: Treasure. Only 16 years old at the time of filming, this teenager claimed to hate the Black community and spent her entire segment spewing racist stereotypes – despite being Black herself.

Humor-inclined viewers see this as a ridiculous episode to make memes from, yet many others have called out the host for not only failing to touch on the real themes of self-hatred that Treasure was dealing with, but turning this minor into a spectacle for the audience. While people saw her presence as ridiculous, they still felt that she was a vulnerable kid being used for views — a harmful trend that would continue in an even more exploitative way.

8

Marianne Encourgaes Her Daughter to Do What!?

Marianna and Miranda sit across from each other and stare at one another in a house on Dr. Phil.
Image via Harpo Productions

Family issues were a constant theme on Dr. Phil, though few examples were as disquieting as the relationship Marianne had with her daughter, Miranda. This case had a sad backstory; after learning that her ex-husband had visited a strip club before leaving her, Marianne became fixated on the concept of strippers and became convinced that men only care about women if they present themselves as sexual objects.

It’s a sentiment that she pushed onto her daughter — along with pressuring the teen to get breast enlargement surgery. Miranda brought her mom onto the show in the hopes of unraveling her trauma with men, with Dr. Phil mainly just calling her ‘crazy’ while admonishing her actions (while never getting to the root of them). It was one of the most cringe-inducing family cases that the show had ever seen, and it highlighted that the good doctor was more focused on criticizing some of his patients rather than actually helping them.

7

Pastor Thom Isn’t Who He Says He Is

Pastor Thom and his wives Belinda and Reba from Dr. Phil.
Image via Harpo Productions

The idea of ‘Sister Wives’ is a common one in reality television — there’s a whole show dedicated to the concept — which Dr. Phil capitalized on it when speaking with Pastor Thom and his two wives, Belinda and Reba. Viewers learned early into the segment that Reba was much younger than her two spouses when she revealed that she was 19 years old and pregnant with Thom’s child.

This was shocking enough for even McGraw himself to call out what a potentially dangerous situation she could be in, with the man touching on themes of grooming and child abuse that online viewers claimed this entire situation was filled of. It’s still one of the most uncomfortable segments the show has ever seen and sticks out to audiences as one of the riskiest relationships that the franchise has welcomed on.

6

Nicholas Brendon Storms Off Set

Actor Nicholas Brendon sits on the set of Dr. Phil and looks depressed and overwhelmed.
Image via Harpo Productions

Seeing a person fall into addiction is always hearbreaking, yet it was even worse for 90s kids when they saw Nicholas Brendon, star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on Dr. Phil. A childhood of abuse and the horrors of Hollywood set the once-successful actor on a downward spiral of many stays in rehab and several arrests. Brendon agreed to speak on the show to discuss his behavior, but both the man and viewers felt uncomfortable with how the doctor began aggressively calling out him and his loved ones while making a point to bring up Brendon’s very recent arrests.

It was the opposite of what a person is meant to do to someone struggling, with Brendon storming off set and expressing how the treatment of both him and his support system was much harsher than he’d been told it would be. It was a distressing time for everyone watching, and it is still remembered as one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the show’s long history.

5

Tanya Ramirez Is a Predator…Who Sued Her Victim

Tanya Ramirez talks in an aside interview on Dr. Phil.
Image via Harpo Productions

There comes a point in every reality show where the creators must ask who they are okay with giving a platform — a question that Dr. Phil never seemed to trouble itself with. This is evident with the case of Tanya Ramirez, a 29-year-old Texas teacher who came on the show to discuss her lawsuit against a 17-year-old student who, after the pair slept together, informed the rest of the school about their ‘affair.’

Even with the knowledge that the age of consent is 17 in Texas, viewers were shocked at how Phil didn’t seem intent on labeling her as a predator and instead turned the segment into a verbal sparring match between Ramirez and the student’s mother. It was uncomfortable to watch the doctor play a largely unbiased third party who, while he did call out Ramirez at times, never appeared that passionate about how wrong her actions were.

4

Burke Ramsey — Who Okayed This!?

Burke Ramsey has wide eyes, talking in an aside interview on Dr. Phil.
Image via Harpo Productions

One of the most famous cases of true crime is JonBenét Ramsey, the story of a six-year-old whose suspicious 1996 murder still confounds detectives and civilian sleuths to this day. Accusations have been thrown at her family for decades with many considering them to be the culprits, rumors that JonBenét’s brother Burke came on the Dr. Phil show to dispel — to endlessly creepy results.

While the conversation largely consisted of repeated explanations that the family had been offering for years, most people found it unnerving because of Burke himself. The man’s constant smile and strange way of phrasing the details surrounding his sister’s death left audiences unsettled, with many feeling that it served as more evidence against his innocence and making them question why Dr. Phil wasn’t asking about key details surrounding the case. This was more of a disquieting TV special than the genuine interview promised, making many people question its entire purpose to this day.

3

The Mistreatment of Shelley Duvall

Shelley Duvall in her interview with 'Dr. Phil'.
Image via Harpo Productions

While celebrity cases like Nicholas Brendon’s were unfortunately not rare on Dr. Phil, few had as unsettling of an impact as Shelley Duvall’s. This 2016 interview came during a difficult time in The Shining actress’ life; health complications and industry stress had put Duvall into a fragile state. Despite this, the interview was filled with McGraw twisting around the woman’s words and needling her to discuss her wildest theories — from aliens to secretly-alive celebrities — while failing to really respect the deeply troubled person in front of him.

It’s not only this interview that has marked this episode as one of the series’ most controversial, but the fallout from it, one that saw numerous celebrities and even Duvall’s own mother call out the program for misleading audiences and harassing her both on and offscreen for the sake of ratings. It was a deeply skewed look into the life of this starlet, and it still leaves viewers uncomfortable to this day.

2

This Is Too Much for Rachel Hutson

Rachel Hutson in an interview in prison, with tears in her eyes on 'Dr. Phil'.
Image via Harpo Productions

Controversial moments aren’t always the most damaging, as is shown through the surprisingly heartfelt interview Dr. Phil hosted with teenage prisoner, Rachel Hutson. The young woman had made headlines for killing her mother Thanksgiving morning and sending a picture of the body to her father, hoping to prepare the man for more loss before she took her own life after years of deep mental health problems.

The doctor handles his interview with Rachel surprisingly well; it takes place in prison and McGraw gives her the chance to clarify her regret over her mother’s death. It’s a heartwrenching lesson about mental health from someone who committed one of the biggest mistakes you ever could, with viewers arguing in the years since whether the insight she offered was worth putting the spotlight on such a clearly fractured person. Whether or not this was the right move is a question that persists to this day, though this questioning wouldn’t stop the series from bringing another confirmed murderer to viewers’ screens.

1

Zachary Davis Is a Literal Murderer

Zachary Davis in a striped prison outfit is interviewed by Dr. Phil McGraw in a small room on 'Dr. Phil'.
Image via Harpo Productions

Why does Dr. Phil have such a fixation on killer teens!? It was a question going through every viewer’s mind when the show announced that the doctor’s newest ‘patient’ would be Zachary Davis, a teen convicted to life in prison for killing his mother with a sledgehammer. But while Hutson’s was a tearjerking moment that explored what could drive someone to such a horrid act, Davis’ interview went down in history as one of the most unsettling moments in reality television.

The young man’s croaky voice and blank stare unnerved viewers then and now, with Phil shirking his usual focus on sensationalizing his guests to warn viewers that nobody feint of heart should watch this insidious conversation. He did this while making a blanket statement that some people are just ‘born evil,’ undercutting the whole message of mental health that this show was built on and creating what is absolutely the show’s most controversial, terrifying moment.

Dr. Phil is available to stream on Roku in the US.

Keep Reading: ‘RHOBH’ Star Turns to TV Plastic Surgeon for Help With Illness

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