Survivor: China

Todd Herzog's 2013 Dr. Phil taping: the allegation and the denial

On 28 December 2017 STAT and the Boston Globe published an investigation in which Todd Herzog, the winner of Survivor: China, said he drank vodka he found in his Dr. Phil dressing room before his 2013 taping and was handed a Xanax. The show's Martin Greenberg called that account absolutely, unequivocally untrue.

Disputed One published account from Herzog and one on-record denial from the show, both in the same December 2017 investigation. Neither has been tested by a court or a regulator, so both are carried here as claims.

Todd Herzog Todd Herzog

What the record shows

  • Confirmed Herzog taped an episode of Dr. Phil in 2013. He was severely alcohol dependent at the time and was visibly impaired during the taping.
  • Confirmed STAT and the Boston Globe published a joint investigation by David Armstrong and Evan Allen on 28 December 2017 examining how the show handled guests with addictions.
  • Disputed Herzog told the reporters that he found vodka in his dressing room before the taping and drank it, and that a staffer then gave him a Xanax to calm his nerves.
  • Disputed Martin Greenberg, the show's director of professional affairs, told the reporters the allegations were "absolutely, unequivocally untrue" and said the show does not do that with this guest or any other.
  • Confirmed Phil McGraw did not comment to the reporters.
  • Unverified No lawsuit, regulatory finding or other adjudication of this allegation has been located. Neither Herzog's account nor the show's denial has been tested anywhere that produces a finding.

What Herzog told the reporters

On 28 December 2017 STAT and the Boston Globe published a joint investigation by David Armstrong and Evan Allen into how the Dr. Phil show handled guests who came on it with addictions. Todd Herzog, who won Survivor: China in 2007, was one of the former guests who spoke to them. He had taped an episode in 2013, and he was visibly impaired during that taping.

Herzog told the reporters that he found vodka in his dressing room before the taping and drank it, and that a staffer then gave him a Xanax to calm his nerves. That is his account, published in that article. No document, recording or finding establishing it has been located, and it should be read as what one person said happened to him.

The show answered on the record

The denial is in the same article, from a named person. Martin Greenberg, the show's director of professional affairs, said the allegations were "absolutely, unequivocally untrue," and said the show does not do that with this guest or any other. Phil McGraw did not comment to the reporters.

That denial sits at the same weight as the allegation on this page. Two accounts of the same afternoon, flatly incompatible, appeared side by side in one piece of reporting, and nothing since has separated them. Writing that the show gave Herzog vodka and a Xanax would assert one side as established fact, and it is not.

The clip and the article are two different things

Herzog's episode had circulated on its own for years, watched as a clip of a Survivor winner in bad shape. The 2017 investigation was a different object. Its subject was the show's practices with guests who have addictions, and it drew on more than one former guest; Herzog's account was part of that reporting, not the whole of it.

This matters for how the story gets retold. The article reports an allegation and a denial. It does not report a finding, and no version of this that reads as a finding is supported by it.

Nothing here has been adjudicated

No lawsuit over this allegation has been located. No regulator has made a finding on it. No court has heard it. As of the verification date on this page, the allegation and the denial stand exactly where the December 2017 reporting left them.

That absence is not evidence for either side. A claim nobody tested is not proven by the silence, and it is not disproven by it either.

The Survivor part of the record

Todd Herzog won Survivor: China, the fifteenth season, which aired from September to December 2007. He reached the end with Courtney Yates and Amanda Kimmel and took four of the seven jury votes. He led that cast in confessionals, with 60.

He has not played again. Survivor: China is his only season, and CBS has never publicly addressed the Dr. Phil allegation.

People in this story

Questions people ask

What did Todd Herzog say happened at his Dr. Phil taping?
He told STAT and the Boston Globe that he found vodka in his dressing room before the 2013 taping and drank it, and that a staffer gave him a Xanax to calm his nerves. The show denies it.
Did the Dr. Phil show respond?
Yes, on the record and by name. Martin Greenberg, the show's director of professional affairs, called the allegations "absolutely, unequivocally untrue" and said the show does not do that with any guest. Phil McGraw did not comment.
Was anyone found responsible?
No. No lawsuit, regulatory finding or court ruling on this allegation has been located. The account and the denial both remain untested, which is why this page attributes each of them rather than stating either.
When was the reporting published?
28 December 2017, as a joint STAT and Boston Globe investigation by David Armstrong and Evan Allen. The taping itself was in 2013, so the article came about four years after the episode.
What season of Survivor did Todd Herzog win?
Survivor: China, the fifteenth season, which aired in 2007. He won with four of the seven jury votes over Courtney Yates and Amanda Kimmel, and he has not played again.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.