Dr. Phil executive producer Carla Pennington gave the ‘worst interview’ before getting hired

Dr. Phil released and all new episode of his hit podcast Phil in the Blanks featuring his Dr. Phil Show executive producer Carla Pennington, who he convinced to step out of the control room and into the hot seat.

Pennington was the first person brought on board for The Dr. Phil Show and built the entire staff from the ground up back in 2001.

Carla dished about the ‘incredibly painful’ process of getting hired for The Dr. Phil Show nearly 20 years ago and recalled how Oprah almost cost her the gig. 

‘Everybody works for her, including me,’ Dr. Phil quipped about Carla’s role. 

The road there, however, was not an easy one and Carla didn’t hold back when speaking about the hiring process which took nearly six months.

‘It was painful, ladies and gentleman,’ she said with a laugh. ‘It was incredibly painful. It was a long process.’

Dr. Phil sounded shocked that the start of their successful decade-spanning professional relationship to had been such an arduous ordeal for his EP.

At the time, Pennington was approached by a network executive while she was working at Entertainment Tonight who asked if she would be interested in interviewing for a new show with Dr. Phil. 

‘Apparently people were after you.’ Carla said. Adding with a chuckle, ‘I said, “who?!” Just kidding!’  

‘I flew to Chicago and walked into a very intimidating room. It was Oprah, Oprah’s [executive producer] and about three Paramount executives, you [Dr. Phil],’ she recalled, ‘which can be intimidating in and of itself.’

Pennington’s interview experience is one of the most relatable parts of her rise to success, because like many people, she totally bombed. 

‘I was terrible! I gave probably the worst interview of my career,’ she recollected. ‘Oh I was rambling and babbling. I don’t even remember what I said.’

Dr. Phil playfully ribbed her: ‘You’ve always done that.’

After she made it through the first round and then the second, which was in Dallas where Dr. Phil worked at the time with his company Courtroom Sciences, Inc.

He explained in the podcast that it was important for his potential executive producer to get some insight into his world of litigation, which was ‘one of precision, investigation and research.’ 

‘It really showed me how meticulous you were about everything,’ Carla said. Which, she added, is how he has operated on his show for the last 18 seasons.  

After the Dallas interview, it was radio silence from Dr. Phil and Carla, a single mother of two, went back to raising her fraternal twins who were about 18-months-old at the time.

‘I didn’t hear anything for ages – months,’ she said and admitted that she kind of forgot about it until she got a call about a third interview while at the park with her kids.

She thought: ‘Oh well what else does that man need to know about me? I mean, my god!’

Turned out McGraw didn’t actually need to interview her again and offered her a job in that next meeting, despite protestations from Oprah. He recalled that Oprah advised that the decision was his and his alone but warned that Carla was the wrong choice.

‘Oprah said “I would not pick Carla Pennington. Pick who you want but do not pick her because she has infant twins and she is already worn out,” Dr. Phil revealed. Turned out that Winfrey was very wrong and never misses an opportunity to admit it. 

During the first taping, Oprah told Phil: “Oh my god was I wrong that is the most energetic, focused, buttoned up, in control person I have ever seen in my life. That is absolutely the person you should have chosen.’ 

To this day, Oprah still says she was wrong whenever she sees Carla. 

A champion of working mothers and single mothers, Carla added: ‘The best people that we hired were single mothers. They know how to focus, get it done, and make quick decisions.’ 

Carla has been the executive producer of Dr. Phil, television’s number one daytime talk show since the first episode, as well as serving in the same capacity on Emmy Award-winning shows DailyMailTV and The Doctors. 

The Dr. Phil show, now in its 18th season and more than 3000 episodes in, recently signed a deal with CBS to continue the show until 2023.

During Phil’s Walk of Fame ceremony last month, he made sure to thank Carla specifically and added that she runs ‘the best team in television.’ The secret to how she does it all? Carla joked on the podcast, a ‘quad shot Grande.’ 

Carla’s episode of Phil in the Blanks is streaming now and The Dr. Phil Show airs Monday-Friday nationwide.