Oprah finally addresses the backlash over launching Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz — and why she refuses to own their politics, views, or the paths their careers took.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
August 13, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Oprah Winfrey defends herself against backlash for launching Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, saying their later political and professional choices have “not one thing to do with me.”
- She says she originally elevated them because they offered practical, accessible advice—McGraw on legal and psychological stress, Oz on everyday medical issues—that she found genuinely useful.
- Both men later courted controversy—Dr. Phil over alleged exploitation of vulnerable guests and toxic workplace claims, and Dr. Oz over dubious health recommendations and his eventual turn into a Republican political figure.
Oprah Winfrey may have helped create Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz as television brands, but she is not taking the blame for what they became. After years of criticism over giving both men a national platform, Winfrey drew a hard line between the experts she introduced to daytime audiences and the political figures they later became.
“Everybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don’t have one thing to do with them,” Winfrey told Emmy Magazine.
Her point was straightforward: She can answer for booking them, but not for decades of choices that followed. “At the time, the reason and intention behind me giving them their breaks was I thought they had valuable information to share that had been meaningful to me,” she added.
Dr. Phil McGraw first impressed Winfrey during one of the most stressful chapters of her career. In 1998, six Texas cattlemen sued her for allegedly defaming the beef industry, and her legal team hired McGraw to assist during the trial. He traveled to court with her each morning for six weeks.
Winfrey remembered him as “so practical, so down to earth, so real,” saying his guidance convinced her that he could help her audience.
Those appearances ultimately turned McGraw into a daytime-TV heavyweight when Dr. Phil, produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, premiered in 2002.
Dr. Mehmet Oz reached Winfrey through Gayle King. What stood out was his ability to make medical information digestible without sounding like a lecture. “He explained practical things like colon cancer and bowel movements,” Winfrey said. “I thought he had the language for explaining medical things in a way that was helpful to me.”
Oz became a regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show before receiving his own syndicated series in 2009.
The controversy came after the Oprah seal of approval had already changed both men’s lives. McGraw faced accusations that his program exploited vulnerable guests, promoted the troubled-teen industry, and fostered an intimidating workplace. Although he holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, he let his Texas license to practice psychology lapse in 2006.
Oz, meanwhile, drew criticism for promoting questionable medical treatments and weight-loss products, including claims that resulted in a highly publicized Senate grilling in 2014.
He later moved into Republican politics, ran for the U.S. Senate, and joined the Trump administration as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
