Dish-Houston

Post-Newsweek's KPRC Houston has pulled Dr. Phil off the air in its 3 o'clock timeslot and replacing it with Oprah's new protege, Dr. Oz.

“It’s out of desperation that I did this," said Post-Newsweek President Alan Frank. “I did everything but stand on my head to get [CBS’] attention over the years.”

The station purchased rights to air the show till 2011, but due to disappointing ratings and tabloid-centered content, they felt it was better to abandon ship. According to Nielson ratings, Dr. Phil's viewership is down 22% from last year!

“We’ve been disappointed for some time in the direction of the show,” continued Frank. “It used to be a friend to female viewers and it’s changed to become a very tabloid show. It’s not the topics, it’s the way they treat the topics.”

No one, but CBS Television Distribution can deny that the show's gone downhill.

The studio states, "The facts are that KRPC has a contractual obligation to pay for the show through 2011. We have listened to the station's comments about the show and we are as proud of the content and direction as we've ever been. We are confused by the station's actions."

Meanwhile, Dr. Oz is up 13% in Houston from a month ago!

“We had no sense that Dr. Phil was going to do anything different so we finally decided to see if we could get ratings from a show other than this one,” said Frank.

Looks like someone needs to take their own advice and GET REAL!