What Happened To Dr. Phil? Why He Decided To End His Longtime Run On Daytime TV

Dr. Phil McGraw became a daytime TV superstar through his advice show, "Dr. Phil," which earned 31 Daytime Emmy nominations over its 21-season run, though never won the awards. The series also got McGraw into quite a few high-profile legal scandals, and despite his folksy charm, McGraw was known to take things way too far on his often controversial namesake show. He began the series in 2002 after gaining fame as a guest expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and hosted thousands of episodes over the next two decades before deciding to end the long-running series on his own terms in January 2023.

"I have been blessed with over 25 wonderful years in daytime television," McGraw said in a statement released at the time (via Deadline). "With this show, we have helped thousands of guests and millions of viewers through everything from addiction and marriage to mental wellness and raising children. This has been an incredible chapter of my life and career." While McGraw said he was very appreciative of the experience and of the fans he made along the way, he felt he had a higher calling and wanted to focus his efforts on primetime programming.

McGraw's exit from the daytime talk show landscape left many fans surprised and confused about why he chose to walk away, especially considering he was second place in the ratings at the time for syndicated daytime talk shows, beaten only by "Live with Kelly and Ryan." The exit came as his five-year mega-contract with CBS was ending amid an uncertain daytime TV landscape. However, it seems McGraw's real reason for leaving might have been related to other reasons, from his increased interest in politics to the production of a new show, "Dr. Phil Primetime," under his Merit Street Media production banner, not to mention some nasty behind-the-scenes details.

Dr. Phil McGraw's decision to end his daytime talk show after 21 seasons was, in part, due to his efforts to kick off "Dr. Phil Primetime" on the newly created digital streaming platform Merit TV. However, the announcement, made in January 2023, notably came less than a year after several former "Dr. Phil" employees went public with allegations of a nightmarish and toxic workplace culture on the set of his long-running show. In February 2022, BuzzFeed News dropped a bombshell expose featuring interviews with a dozen ex-staffers who claimed they were subjected to name-calling, screaming, largely from the show's executive producer, and not McGraw himself.

McGraw himself was not directly implicated by many of the allegations, but the claims echoed those made against Ellen DeGeneres in 2020, which led to the end of her daytime talk show in 2022. Additionally, the end of "Dr. Phil" seemed to coincide with something of an exodus of talent and once-hit shows. In the year leading up to McGraw's departure, "The Real," "The Wendy Williams Show," "Dr. Oz," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and "Maury" all came to a close, marking a paradigm shift in the landscape of daytime TV.

Meanwhile, despite "Dr. Phil" going off the air, McGraw has continued to work hard in the industry. The entertainment veteran worked behind the scenes as an executive producer on the CBS drama series "Bull," as well as the short-lived legal dramedy "So Help Me Todd." McGraw himself kicked off "Dr. Phil Primetime," which premiered in April 2024. However, the show went off the air after McGraw was dragged into a bankruptcy scandal in July 2025, and Merit Street Media ceased to exist.