McGraw's advice and methods have drawn criticism from some fellow Psychotherapists as well as from some laymen. McGraw's critics regard advice given by him to be at best simplistic, and at worst, ineffective. The National Alliance on Mental Illness called McGraw's conduct in one episode of his television show "unethical" and "incredibly irresponsible". McGraw said in a 2001 South Florida newspaper interview that he never liked traditional one-on-one counseling, and that "I'm not the Hush-Puppies, pipe and 'Let's talk about your mother' kind of Psychologist."
Generally, the program is filmed and guests appear in studio, but in 2006 the Dr. Phil House began as an occasional series. McGraw and his production staff invite guests to a special house wired with numerous cameras and microphones. There, his staff monitors the conversations of the guests he is trying to help, and intervenes when necessary in order to prevent physical violence. McGraw also provides on-the-spot advice and counseling to the "house guests." McGraw's wife Robin sits in the studio audience for almost every show and, at the end of the show, she walks off the set with him.
Since September 2009, Dr. Phil has been broadcast in HDTV with a revamped look and a new theme written and performed by McGraw's son, Jordan.
Dr. Phil is a production of Peteski Productions and distributed by CBS Television Distribution. Harpo Productions co-produced the series until 2010, with Paramount Domestic Television and its successor CBS Paramount Domestic Television serving as secondary co-producers until 2007, and it was originally distributed by King World Productions.
Reruns of earlier episodes of the series began broadcasting on the Oprah Winfrey Network as of January 2011.
