This Is the Major Reason I Can’t Stop Watching TV’s Grossest Show ‘Dr. Pimple Popper’

Dr. Pimple Popper ran for nine seasons on TLC between 2018 and 2023 and starred the charismatic Dr. Sandra Lee. The captivating reality series showed the wonderful dermatologist removing blackheads, acne, lipomas and life-altering growths from her patients’ skin. Watching Dr. Pimple Popper carrying out her treatments became so popular it made her a household name and was watched by millions of fans across the world. Including myself, I loved watching the show. Dr. Pimple Popper soon became one of the network’s most popular shows. In fact, after the last show aired in August 2023, the re-runs continued to air with such interest that even now Dr Pimple Popper remains in the top 10 list of shows on TLC.

So what made Dr. Pimple Popper such a huge hit? For me, the best entertainment involves an element of mess. Whether it’s forbidden feelings being acted on or the building up of unresolved tension finally combusting into a flurry of chaos, mess is what keeps me engaged. I think another crucial element to entertainment is resolve. It’s such an unshakably American way to tie things up so they can feel satisfied, and it doesn’t have to be positive all the time. A lot of it is karma doing its job or the stars aligning and something pans out for the protagonist. From your favorite prestige drama on Max that will inevitably sweep the Emmys to the most scandalous and salacious Bravo reality shows, grit and grime with a bow tied on it is the ultimate bingeable watch. Uncomfortably enough, this can best be exemplified by the TLC hit Dr. Pimple Popper.

Millions of Viewers Watch Dr Pimple’s YouTube Videos

Dr. Sandra Lee was one of the only doctors to take her practice to social media back in 2010. When I was a teenager, I remember binging on these YouTube videos with my friends. And I wasn’t alone. Millions of people have viewed the multiple videos Dr Lee has posted online. I suspect, like many others, we’re more intrigued and emotionally invested in the treatments instead of being grossed out by them. As a group of hormonal youths who were struggling with the icks and yucks of puberty, including acne, we could not help but be transfixed by a patient going through the same thing, but much worse. Dr. Lee was able to tap into something by posting her skin extractions online, and it blew up into the show I know today as Dr. Pimple Popper.

Dr. Pimple Popper is now ready to take her pop-pular talents back to cable TV, with a brand-new series for the Lifetime TV channel Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out. Her new series premieres April 21 at 9 PM ET and will follow her to her California clinic where she will be doing what she does best, popping zits and a whole lot more. In a recent announcement when launching the show Dr. Lee noted, “I cannot wait to share with the Lifetime audience the transformations of some of my patients and their journey before, during and after their procedures. Additionally, I can’t wait for people to meet some of the new doctors who will be joining me as we help people throughout this season.”

America Loves a Comeback Story

TLC’s Dr. Pimple Popper premiered several years ago, and it incorporated both the social media videos we knew and loved along with tactful, compassionate story-telling. Over the course of five seasons, viewers became near experts on cysts, lipomas, and keloids and what started out as morbid curiosity developed into a sincere kind of inquistiveness. These patients were so traumatized and ashamed of their physical disfigurements that it took a toll on their professional and personal lives, with many of them only wearing full-coverage clothing and some resented even leaving the house. I can’t help but think that the empathy that they garnered from an emotionally invested audience must have been healing for them after having their lives being monopolized by a physical disfigurement that wasn’t their fault.

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Watching Pimple Popping Videos Has Proven Benefits

As it turns out, watching pimple-popping videos does actually ignite something within its viewership on a chemical level. A study that was documented in the scientific journal Behavioural Brain Research back in 2021 scanned the brains of women who watched pimple-popping videos along with steam-cleaning videos and water fountain videos. While some of the women didn’t enjoy the pimple-popping videos, the ones who did enjoy the videos had brain scans that showed they were less disgusted by the clips they were shown. They were less grossed out because their curiosity superseded their disgust, and they had a different capacity for regulating disgust as well.

This study gives a lot more respect for shows like Dr. Pimple Popper, because they’re exposing vulnerable patients that have been steeped in shame for far too long to an audience that is curious and empathetic to their plight. It’s less about schadenfreude, delight in another’s misfortune, which is often a hallmark of reality television, and more about piquing a spirit of inquiry.

Dr. Pimple Popper

Genre

Reality

Debut Date

January 3, 2018