Phil McGraw — whose “The Dr. Phil Show” is taped at Paramount Studios in Hollywood — is being driven crazy by stories that he let at-risk guests get drunk and drugged before going on camera.
The most sensational story comes from “Survivor: China” winner Todd Herzog.
“Herzog, who was battling alcoholism, told STAT and the Boston Globe that he was not intoxicated when he arrived at the Los Angeles studio,” reports StatNews.com. “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.'”
McGraw declined an interview, but Martin Greenberg, a psychologist attached to the show, said guests have never been provided alcohol or directed where to buy drugs.
“In a statement, he denied Herzog was left alone with a bottle of vodka in his dressing room, or given Xanax,” StatNews said.
“We do not do that with this guest or any other,” he was quoted as writing. “He called the allegations “’absolutely, unequivocally untrue.'”
The story added: “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.”