4B = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2002
NOT ALL AIR FORCE ROTC STUDENTS FLY PLANES. GETTING THEIR TUITION PAID BY THE AIR FORCE IS THRILL ENOUGH.
WEATHER
'Dr. Phil' fills up TV ratings
The Asssociated Press
NEW YORK — A 17-year-old runaway and her mother were face-to-face on national television, with talk show host Phillip McGraw urging honest communication to heal their rift.
He didn't offer a hug or shed a tear. Instead, he loudly lectured the distraught mom.
"She's going to be gone or dead if you don't get real," McGraw said. "Do you want your baby out of the streets and into your life? Then quit preaching and talk to her!"
Viewers are eating up the televised tough love. "Dr. Phil" has the best ratings of any new talk show since his mentor, Oprah Winfrey, debuted in 1986.
With Winfrey due to end her show in 2006, TV stations are wondering who will take her place at the top of the heap.
In the season's first week, McGraw, who has a doctorate in psychology, drew more viewers than four other new talk show hosts combined - Rob Nelson. James Van Praagh, Caroline Rhea
"Everyone knew it would be the highest rated of the new talk shows," said Marc Berman, an analyst for Media Week Online. "No one knew it would be this high."
and John Walsh
"He's not coming in as a rookie," said Roger King, whose company, King World Productions, distributes the syndicated show.
"Dr. Phil" started last month with every advantage. McGraw's once-a-week stint on Winfrey's show the past two years brought him a ready-made audience. That earned him desirable afternoon time slots in most cities, with one rule; that he couldn't be on at the same time as Winfrey.
Yet even McGraw's producers wondered how his methodical drawl would play every day.
No problem.
"I'm humbled by it," McGraw said of his early success. "And I don't say that trying to be, 'aw, shucks.' I have a lot of confidence in what we're doing."
A trained psychologist,
McGraw caught Winfrey's eye as
a trial consultant during her legal fight with the Texas beef industry. He's already parlayed their connection into a small empire; even his 23-year-old son has written a self help book.
"Dr. Phil" treads the familiar talk show terrain of unruly children, bickering spouses and the latest diseases. Instead of simply reporting, he advises people how to get out of tough spots, and his largely female audience nods through tears.
McGraw and the show's producer think viewers find his unwillingness to pull punches refreshing.
"He's the emotional compass that people need in their life everyday, and he provides the truth — two things that people need in their life on a daily basis," said Terry Wood, senior vice president of programming for Paramount TV, the show's producer.
Further proof that "Dr. Phil" has arrived: He's being mocked regularly by David Letterman.
Letterman serves up simplistic bromides to poke fun at McGraw.
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Summer mo.
2 Caspian feeder
8 Secret plot
14 Genetic letters
15 Russian river
16 Legislative bodies
17 Bruins' great
18 Ship's company
19 Steal cattle
20 Evenly spaced
22 Most desirable
23 Singer Eddy
24 Puzzle completely
28 Wintry forecast
29 Comic Abbott
30 Requirements
31 Bombarded
34 Pole or Czech
35 Prizefighters' org
38 Develops
40 Unruly child
41 Bad thespians
43 Quarterback call
43 T.S. or George
47 Scale note
48 Word with renewal or sprawl
52 Manitoba capital
54 Take no notice of
55 Pub orders
56 Overruns
57 Overacts
60 Actor's part
61 Boy king of Egypt
62 New Jersey city
63 Small bills
64 Raw mineral
65 Formal, informally
66 Steam engine man
67 Silent assent
DOWN
1 Decorates
2 Remove from a spool
3 Rinse one's mouth
4 Remove garments from
5 Showed again
6 Assert
7 Statute
$ \textcircled{c} $2002 Tribune Media Services, Inc All rights reserved.
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52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
10/15/02
8 Mouselike mammal
9 "My __ Vinny"
10 Hastens
11 Winter hrs. in Philadelphia
12 Ott or Torme
13 Wind dir.
21 Employs
22 Torment diabolically
24 Sleuth Drummond
25 Sandwich shop
26 Coated cheese
27 Invitation letters
29 Tops with skirts
32 __ Marie Saint
33 Cotillion gal
35 Expression of relief
36 Island east of Java
37 Brutal Idi
39 Far from a pitcher's duel
42 Instrumental compositions
Solutions to yesterday's puzzle.
44 Sea eagle
46 Masonic doorkeepers
49 The Hub
50 Mr. Toscanini
51 Built a home
53 Annoying
54 Bay
56 Inner Hebrides
island
57 Ultimate act
58 French sea
59 Be in the red
60 Propel a shell
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