Dana Tyler

A Wednesday With Dr. Phil

So what's Dr. Phil like in person?

He's very tall, very scheduled and very organized.

He came in with a smile today to CBS 2 today to do a live interview promoting what's coming up on his show Thursday and Friday. And just so you know, November Sweeps start tomorrow, Thursday, November 1, so you'll see a lot of extra promotion for CBS shows and news stories on CBS 2 during the next four weeks.

Anyway, one thing I learned from Dr. Phil's last visit is that he is really clear and focused about how to condense his hour-long program into a three- to four-minute live TV news interview. It's team work, no doubt about that. On his end, and ours.

We got the word last week that he'd be here Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon we got some written information and then a few hours before the interview a tape arrived with a couple of segments from Thursday's Dr. Phil, Part 1 of "Teacher Sex Scandal".

At about 11:00am, his producer and my producer talk about what will end up on on our segment during the noon news. And then his producer goes over things with Dr. Phil and my producer goes over things with me
so that when we're on TV, we're in sync.

While my co-anchor Jim Rosenfield and I are doing the news, Dr. Phil comes in at about 12:10 and waves 'hi' to us all and he has a seat in our interview area. I go over to the other side of the studio during the commercial.

"Hi, Phil," I say. I call him Phil in person and Dr. Phil on TV. It ust feels right that way. We shake hands and he's friendly and easy going. An again, we make sure he and I are on the same page as to what we're doing

Then, before you know it, it's "5, 4, 3, 2, 1," it's 12:18 p.m. and we're on live TV.  

We're using two cameras for the segment, one for my close-up and the other one gets a two-shot of us or a close-up of Dr. Phil.

I have to admit, it's a challenge, because you, the viewer, are coming into this cold. So with my questions, Dr. Phil's answers and the video sound bites from the show, a picture is revealed of what viewers can expect in his upcoming segments on "Teacher Sex Scandal." They're about a teacher accused of having sex with her under-aged male students. And, of course, our whole segment is a "tease',"which means there are unanswered questions that Dr. Phil hopes will prompt you to tune in.

With so many of his shows in the works on such varied topics, I have to say, I was amazed at his instant recall of the detail on this one. You know how Dr. Phil is: He wants to get to the truth and find solutions and in person, you can feel that sense of determination as well as his outrage that something so disturbing as this still goes on.

And of course, he's a TV pro. He knows how to work together with me toward a good segment. We were prepared with other things to talk about -- his new segment called the "Dr. Phil Judgment House" and his in-the-news topical segment called "Dr. Phil Now" -- but woosh! We ran out of time. As soon as I tossed to John Elliott for the weather, I looked at Phil and we both nodded in agreement that the segment went smoothly. 

I went back to the big news desk to finish the noon. We sign off and then go back over to the interview set to do a taped interview with Dr. Phil  for a recorded segment that will be used later this month. We recorded it at about 12:40p.m., because he did a live phone interview with someone at 12:30 for another of his upcoming shows. And then we did our taped interview. I hopped out of the seat and a reporter from KDKA in Pittsburgh interviewed him. Then a reporter from KYW in Philadelphia interviewed him for segments promoting his show on their stations.

And then, in a flash, Dr. Phil was gone.