Dr. Phil Explores New Ideas In 6th Season

Clinical Psychologist Will Revisit Man-Camp, Present New Segment "Dr. Phil Now"

(CBS)  Since 2002, Dr. Phil McGraw has been dishing out real advice for real people on his daytime talk show. Today marks the debut of the sixth season and this year McGraw will film the show's 1,000th episode.

"I can't believe it's season six but I have to tell you, I'm more excited about this season since the first season," he told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "We spend every summer reinventing ourselves. We have some exciting things coming this season and it starts today."

McGraw says the show will bringing back "man camp," except this season the camp will focus on newlyweds rather than couples who have been married for a while.

"Individually, absolutely delightful people; when they come together, they are so toxic, combative and kids caught in the mix, even with these six week relationships," he said.

The problem, McGraw said, is that people don't sort out their problems before entering into marriage.

"We've got people today that spend so much more time planning the wedding than they do planning the marriage," he said. "They'll spend months talking about caterers and seating charts and all the dresses, that sort of thing. But they never talk about things like philosophy about child-rearing, religion, division of labor, geography, where will we live if somebody gets transferred and money is a big issue and a big issue in these relationships. We have all kind of problems."

One of the most stunning and troubling episodes is where McGraw works with a wife who suspects her husband drugged the nanny and then acted inappropriately with her.

"We see all the stories about nannies and nanny cams. There's more than one angle to another woman being in the home," McGraw said. "This is a case where this individual is accused of exploiting these nannies sexually. His wife is here. We hear from some of the nannies. That's our show on Wednesday. We're going to be drilling down on real stories with real people like we've always done."

This season, McGraw said the show will also follow the headlines and examine how it affects real people. The segment will be called "Dr. Phil Now" and the show will actually go live to where the event is taking place.

McGraw said he is also doing to be taking on the issue of kids and driving in the wake of five cheerleaders dying in a car accident when the driver was texting.

"A young man featured in People magazine that ran over a 63-year-old man on a bicycle, a fine young man, no drinking, no drugs, no speeding, daytime, dry, straight road, texting, killed man on a bicycle," he said. "We do a show on this with a girl that's texting 5,000 times a month, and say, I can do this while I'm driving. Those girls just didn't know how to do it right. Unbelievable trend. It's epidemic with kids. We have to get this under control."

In the end, McGraw says his show is about getting people set on the right path. He knows that the short time he spends with his guests isn't going to cure them, but the show has a great support program for them when the leave.

"The guest on our show, when they go back to their community, we arrange whatever they need, individual therapy, financial counseling," he said. "We bring unbelievable resources, a wake-up call, work starts when they leave."

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Dr. Phil, Re: Your new program %u201CWhat is going on?%u201D It is easy to know WHAT, WHEN and HOW to fix it. Just go to %u2026. www.motionmetrics.org For example, a law can prohibit typing of texts, when driving a car. But, person can drive and talk by cell phone, as long as is talking through ear plugs. Then, the motionmetrics would track the conversation and detect when a person is typing texts, or when is talking without the ear plugs. And at all time the privacy is guarantee.

Dr. Edward Romanoff
Preventive Science Institute (PSI)
[e-mail]