What is the best specialty to go into if you want to be a TV personality?

[Jack is Back]

If my end goal is to be a TV personality and sell products like Dr. Oz or that one dude on The Doctors that my grandmother inexplicably watches 5 days a week, what specialty should I chose?

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[Shnurek]

Chiropractic

 

[MrBigglesworth]

I think Dr. Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon? Sanjay Gupta is a neuro-surgeon. Better study up!

 

[carml]

You have to do a TV-personality residency. A fellowship in Charlitanitis helps, but only if you want to appear on the most competitive channels like OWN or such.

 

[Valadi]

I think Dr. Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon? Sanjay Gupta is a neuro-surgeon. Better study up!

And they have only the highest accolades from the best schools in the country, have published a ton, and work like 20 hour days... Yeah, study hard lol

In the end it probably won't matter so much what you go into if you can have Harvard-UPenn-Wharton-Columbia, or similar, stamps to your name like Dr. Oz, although surgeons do tend to get a bit more of the limelight. I guess cameras just like filming people with face masks!

As an anecdote, one of the surgeons I trained under during my surgery clerkship (we have our surgery clerkship split so you have 1 attending/3 weeks) was Dr. Oz's chief resident at Columbia while a young Dr. Oz was a junior resident. By his account, he said that Oz was always trying new and alternative medicine media-friendly therapies, and that it was no surprise that he ended up become a tv personality.

 

[CaptainSSO]

Are you seriously asking this question? This is a somewhat childish thread. What you're asking is akin to asking what's the best job to have on the side when trying to become a movie star. You might as well have said "I want to be like Edward Norton in the movies my grandmother watches every Friday night, how do I do this?" Luck, circumstances, timing--these are all variables that go into becoming a TV personality. There is no magical residency. Dr. Drew is internal medicine. You have to happen to run into/know/be sought out by someone who works in the television industry, who happens to need a doctor for their show. There is no set path you can take. And your chances of success are almost zero. (Just like becoming the next Brad Pitt).

 

[medstud87]

Are you seriously asking this question? This is a somewhat childish thread. What you're asking is akin to asking what's the best job to have on the side when trying to become a movie star. You might as well have said "I want to be like Edward Norton in the movies my grandmother watches every Friday night, how do I do this?" Luck, circumstances, timing--these are all variables that go into becoming a TV personality. There is no magical residency. Dr. Drew is internal medicine. You have to happen to run into/know/be sought out by someone who works in the television industry, who happens to need a doctor for their show. There is no set path you can take. And your chances of success are almost zero. (Just like becoming the next Brad Pitt).

 

[officedepot]

are there any tv personalities or tv shows that have radiologists in them?

 

[ToldYouSo]

Andrew Weil is an internist, Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon as mentioned earlier, there's also the plastic surgeons on extreme makeover. Really depends I guess. The regular medical correspondent on the morning news I watch is an EM doc

 

[Miss Alyssa]

I remember getting an email through my about an internship program at Discovery Health (back when it was around). It was for med students and/or residents. Something to do with the launch of a new medical show. That sort of thing might be an 'in'.

 

[vandyam]

I work (let me use this term loosely...he's almost never there) in the ED with Travis Stork from "the doctors." He's nice enough/good looking...I think he was on "The Bachelor" while still in residency, but maybe it was just after. Anyway, clearly EM is where it's at!! (my future speciality!)