WARNING: Watching Dr. Phil could be hazardous to your health.

The windy Texan went way past "Get Real" to get real sensational with yesterday's lurid and disturbing sweeps grabber, Is My Son A Sexual Predator?

On trial, or so it seemed, was Mikai, a 19-year-old accused of sexually attacking and fondling young girls, including -- most shockingly -- his four-year-old sister. He had always denied it.

The boy's grim-faced parents sat in stony silence as Dr. Phil McGraw ripped into their sweaty kid. They had written the TV therapist asking for an intervention (which began on Wednesday's show).

What they got was the full Church of Phil, a psychological beating that seemed at times as wildly inappropriate as the accusations. Bottom line, this kind of intervention should never have taken place on television.

(Proof God agrees: The ending of yesterday's show was cut short on NBC's Buffalo affiliate with a bulletin on the Pope's tracheotomy. Dr. Phil also airs at 5 p.m. on CTV.)

It should be stated that McGraw's show does foot the bill for any psychological expenses that these families incur. The intention is to help families in crisis. Some people are desperate for 15 minutes of TV fame, some are just desperate.

Yesterday, however, Dr. Phil completely crossed the line in terms of his belief in his own power. Things reached a Howard Beale-like level of insanity.

"You can come in here and you can try and bull---- me all day long," he hollered at the kid during what was described as a three-hour studio break (while cameras still rolled). "You can save us all a lot of trouble if you just want to get real now."

The boy's father finally lost it. "You better talk to (Dr. Phil) because you're dead to us," he told Mikai. The mom lamented giving birth "to a sexual predator."

Where McGraw completely jumped the shark was when he brought in an expert and strapped the kid to a polygraph machine. "Have you ever touched your sister's vagina or breasts?" Makai was asked. Cut to wildly zig-zaggy lines.

The show featured plenty of disturbing images (an advisory was posted at the start). Shots of Mikai at home on the floor aggressively wrestling with his sister (her face blurred) were shown over and over. Spooky, blue-ish shots of Makai at odd angles were intercut with clean-cut class photos. The kid was crisply edited into a criminal corner.

By the end, Mikai broke down and admitted his guilt. That's when Dr. Phil let loose with this head scratcher: "Were you telling the truth when you said you were a pathological liar?"

Mission accomplished, a grim-faced Dr. Phil took his wife Robin's hand and, as he does at the end of every show, walked off the set. He promised to stand by and help Mikai and to protect the little sister.

He said nothing about undoing the damage this public stoning will surely bring. Mikai needed this wakeup call and if it stops his abhorrent behaviour maybe it was worth it. But how do you recover if you are branded for life as that pervert from the Dr. Phil show?