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Have Viewers Had Enough Of Dr. Oz?

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 22:37 PST, May 31, 2017

“If you want to get hurt, do continue watching Dr. Oz and listening to his health advice.”

This is the message healthcare experts are spreading all over social media today to take away Dr. Oz’s national praise and boot him off national television for disseminating evidence-scarce health, sex and diet advice, hurting the health of millions of Americans and, some say, even hurting the U.S. budget.

With dozens of analyses showing that at least half of the medical advice Dr. Oz promotes on his show is wrong and dangerous, Mehmet Oz still maintains solid viewership ratings with his Dr. Oz Show and continues grabbing Emmys for his irresponsible show.

In April, Dr. Oz took home the 2017 Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Informative Talk Show, making it his ninth Emmy award for the show that is being lambasted thoroughly by studies and healthcare experts around the globe.

America is, however, slowly turning its back on Dr. Oz, as seen from the downward ratings trend. Dr. Oz Show viewership ratings dropped more than 70 percent over the last five years, as in 2011-2012 the show averaged 3.8 million viewers, with today’s ratings standing at about 1.1 million of daily viewers, according to the Broadcasting Cable.

However, the Dr. Oz Show did reach 1.8 million viewers last September, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump – who, of course, went on to become U.S. President – made an appearance on the show.

The most worrying part of The Dr. Oz Show – besides the show offering baseless and wrong medical advice – is that about half of the show’s millions of daily viewers are women aged 25 to 54.

Think about it this way: every time Dr. Oz suggests that people can fight cancer, obesity, or Alzheimer’s disease if viewers just eat this or that, his medical recommendations are picked up by those women who pass it to their husbands and kids, who, in their turn, may pass it to their colleagues and classmates.

This creates a vicious circle of endless medical advice from Dr. Oz circulating all over America with millions of Americans making wrong diet, health, and even sex choices based on the seemingly credentialed medical doctor’s irresponsible and misleading advice.

This man did win Oprah’s seal of approval after all. But not only is Dr. Oz potentially harmful for America’s health, but also for America’s budget.

This past Wednesday, the Law 360 reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission had to return nearly $2 million to the more than 38,000 consumers who purchased a green coffee bean extract that Dr. Oz actively promoted on his show promising “rapid fat loss.”

Despite the endless criticism surrounding the Dr. Oz Show and its constant promotion of evidence-scarce products that are supposed to cure disease, boost sex drive, or promote fat loss, the show was renewed through the 2018-19 season, its 10th season on air, according to Variety.

As Dr. Oz continues disseminating poor health and diet advice from the small screens in millions of America’s homes daily, a 2014 analysis showed that at least half of the medical advice Oz shares is baseless or wrong, according to The Washington Post.

In 2011, the FDA scolded Dr. Oz for an “irresponsible and misleading” report on arsenic in apple juice, and three years later the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee grilled Dr. Oz for promoting harmful products.

America still hasn’t had enough of Dr. Oz apparently, as his show still draws millions of viewers daily. But that’s what Dr. Oz does: in addition to being a medical doctor, he’s also a TV personality, who oftentimes needs to do or say absurd things to stay popular.

[Featured Image by Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock]

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