When television shows start bailing high-profile criminals out of jail in order to secure them as guests, something has gone terribly wrong in the entertainment industry. The staff of Dr. Phil McGraw’s advice show sprang one of the teenagers who beat an acquaintance in order to gain notoriety through YouTube:

The TV talk show Dr. Phil McGraw confirmed on Saturday the fact that its staff bailed out of Florida jail one of the girls involved in the violent video posted on YouTube. The video depicted several teen girls beating one of their classmates while filming her.

Mercades Nichols is one of the eight teen girls who face charges in the case of the vicious beating posted on YouTube. She was bailed out by a representative of the show on Friday night, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.

The bails for the violent girls were set on Friday and they are ranging from $30,000 to $37,000. The girls are aged from 14 to 18.

The bailing out was confirmed via e-mail by Terri Corigliano, a show spokeswoman. In his e-mail, Corigliano explained that the show has previously helped other “guests and potential guests” of the show with different needs, but in this case “certain staff members” who were in the process of booking guests for the Dr. Phil McGraw show went a bit too far and broke the rules of the show.

In other words, the Dr. Phil show wanted to further enable these little teenage imps in their quest for celebrity. Instead of dealing with the negative consequences of their actions, the show wanted to reward them for it. Is that the kind of therapy that Dr. Phil would recommend for the girls, who now face felony charges and will be tried as adults?

The video itself was disturbing enough. The reaction to it by Dr. Phil’s staff is even more disturbing in that the girls’ ambitions and means to reach them were all too realistic. (via TMV)