The Davis Family: The WORST FAMILY On Supernanny (Pt. 3)

[Foreword: Sorry this took a long while to get out, and I haven’t been posting as much as of late. Things behind the scene happened. Still hope you enjoy!]

Last time on the Davis Family saga, Supernanny tried to rescue a dysfunctional toxic family that was being ruined by a misogynistic, foul-mouthed father. And her results seemed...decent, actually.

But will these actually stick when we take a look at the family in the last act of the episode?...let's take a look.

PART 3: A.W.F.U.L. at His Behavior

That title stands for A Worrisome Fucking Ugly Look at his behavior. Ok, it's not entirely that, but...it's still awful. And you'll see why in a second.

So Supernanny return a week later- oh, wait,...she actually arrives earlier, 3 days later, not 7 days. She says she's worried that Phil's behavior could escalate. Which...is concerning, because it tells me she doesn't trust this family. But can we really blame her?

We learn the parents thoughts again: the mom is scared to watch (you shouldn't have to be scared to watch, Debbie), while the dad thinks he's made a good change. Hmmm....

Round 3 for the Davis Family reel!

Unexpected Improvement

Now isn't that nice?

So the video starts, and we actually see for once Phil has made some progress. Phil actually plays around with his daughters and talks with them. Finally, one hint of love between them! But again, keep in mind, this is him on his best behavior on camera, so who knows how long this will last, or how genuine it is.

This is what a (step)father and daughter relationship should be!

We then see a scene of Phil and Morgan, outside on the sidewalk, talking about Morgan's boyfriend. If that description gave you flashbacks to the AWFUL slut-shaming scene from earlier, I don't blame you.

Thankfully, this time, the conversation is actually constructive. We see Phil joking around with Morgan about Chris (her boyfriend), and not shaming her. It's genuinely a bit touching to watch, especially considering so far all we've seen is Phil bully her.

But...you might notice how this almost seems too good to be true. Has Phil really changed for the better or is this just temporary?

Expected Relapse

Warning: This section in specific depicts possibly uncomfortable verbal and physical child abuse, especially towards the end.

Well, our suspicions are confirmed once we transition to the next clip, and surprise surprise, Phil has NOT converted overnight! Once he forgets about the cameras and he gets really stressed, his abusive side unleashes. And boy...it's ugly. VERY ugly.

Hey Phil! You're carrying your child, not a ragdoll.

We see footage of him yelling at the daughters and pulling them by their hands, to the point they yell in pain. Gross. He also threatens his son (yeah, remember Phillip Jr?) with "more than timeout", which...gross. Just gross. 

Look at Phillip's face! HE'S FLINCHING!

Things only get worse and worse as the tape progresses, showing how LITTLE progress he's actually made...in fact, he might be getting worse. Quick highlight of Phil being abusive:

1) He continues to loudly curse. Phil, STOP doing that in front of YOUR KIDS!  (And...why is "Bath Alone" scribbled in lipstick on the mirror?)

2) He punches this wall in anger. Jesus Christ dude! This man is genuinely a danger to himself and others.

3) And to top it all off, he SLAPS one of his girls! I won't be showing you that, but this frame shows him a few seconds before doing so.

Really, this is all just gross! Who does this to their own children? And Debbie still has little reaction. He at least admits that he "shouldn't have done that", but like... There's a fine line between mistakes and abuse. As worried, Phil's behavior has NOT truly changed. A few days after Jo leaves, he's starting to revert. 

Also, notice how the one involving him slapping his daughter, the worst of all of these, was recorded from a secret camera, which he probably forgot about. This is genuinely horrific to watch.

You may think this is as bad as it gets.

I wish that was as bad as it gets.

But then we get one of- no, THE WORST ever scene of- not even the episode, just Supernanny as a WHOLE.

While I'll be censoring an image, keep in mind the description of the next scene may be especially triggering, so be wary if you chose to see it.

(Look at the bed. This is mere moments before horror.)

Basically, a secret camera (again, secret camera) records Phil sleeping in bed, and one of his rowdy girls is attacking him. Jee, it's almost like violent parents create violent children. I know I said this before, but it's true.

And then, horrifyingly...

Phil HITS his daughter SO hard she falls SMACK on the floor, and begins BAWLING, running out of the room.

WOWWWWWWWWW. Just...wow.

At this point, I don't know what else to say. I almost don't want to finish this! This tops it all. To see this poor girl get casually and violently abused by this sick father, and to see her cry so badly...it's just...

This aired...on television MIND YOU! MILLIONS of viewers saw THIS! They saw...THIS!!!

Honestly, if I was Debbie, this should've been the last straw. How does she tolerate this? I want to recap what this man has done to these poor girls:

• Called Morgan a bitch, slut, and whore
• Slapped one of the girls when they bit
• Demonstrated how he spanked them
• Forced Morgan to clean up their toys
• And now straight up just clock them in the face

Like...at what point does this become inexcusable? At what point do you have to admit things won't work here? Because lets be real: if I saw my husband/wife clock my children in the face, things will NOT work out!

Debbie doesn't even really say anything...does she even care at this point? I don't think so. She's genuinely this apathetic. You can not be this stoic to seeing your daughter being slapped. Why is she still so nonchalant?

Debbie. Your children are not safe. We need to get them away from him...now.

Phil then says "I got no excuse for that" and my response? I've had enough. I don't believe in Phil anymore. This nonsense has been up nearly a week in episode, mind you. You keep explaining your wrong, but you can't even improve Phil. Your actually getting WORSE! And your apologies are SO shallow, NO genuine attempt at self improvement, no authentic remorse- it's too much. WHERE IS CPS?!

Jo, completely appalled by such disturbing behavior, simply says- well-...the entirety of Phil's character in one sentence. Again.

"Phil...your a man who has abusive behavior."

Th- THERE IT IS! That's really just it. He's toxic, manipulative, violent, angry, dismissive...he's ABUSIVE. And it's ruining everyone's lives in this household. This NEEDS to END!

NOW!

Jo proceeds to make the smartest decision of the whole episode: to make Phil start attending counseling. YES! FINALLY! Listen, Jo, I like your exercises, but let's be real...shooting darts at your kids and doing trust falls is not going to change someone's mindset that much. What he really needs..is  THERAPY!! 

Well, also being honest, therapy could be a step. There's still a lot more. Maybe...CPS? Divorce? Jailtime? Anything like that? ...but I guess for now, therapy.

Meeting the Therapist

She kinda reminds me of Ms P. I like her already!

(Ms. P is a reference to my middle school counselor I sometimes mention, for you uncultured folks.)

Phil meets up with a therapist named Joyce, who's sweet, very soft-spoken, and someone that you could talk to. Even Phil admits that. Yes, Phil.

Joyce says they have a program that can help those displaying abusive behavior like Phil, and she says that he wants him to think "I want my daughters marrying a man like me."

(Right: William)

Jo decides to introduce Phil to someone named William, who had participated in the course, and presumably showed the same abusive behavior as him, but hopefully turned it around. William proves to be very honest and admits he had the same problems with Phil. He would verbally abuse his family and disrespect them, and that it had become a habit he couldn't break.

Joyce also demonstrates how real the situation is by proving how bad the men in these situations can be:

"I have worked with men who have never thought they would do this, that have killed their partners, or killed even their children. [!!!] They have come to me and say 'I didn't really men for this to happen,' but they did mean and choose to cross that first line."

Yikes. That's...that's really just all I can say, yikes. It is scary to think how far abuse can go to lead to men killing their own family members, and feeling so guilty yet victimless in the situation. And shes' right. Maybe they didn't mean to kill their wife or children. But they did mean to abuse them, and that's just as bad.

Phil makes a couple of commitments to stop abusing his kids, but Jo is still not convinced. There's still more to be done, of course, so she brings out another person. We already met William, an abuser, so what about a victim?

The Consequences

This poor woman...this is who Morgan could end being like.

Jo makes Phil meet up with a woman who had suffered abuse from her own father, and she makes it a point to show the abuse she suffered affected her into adulthood.

"I saw the way my father treated me and treated my mother, and on some level I believed that was how I was how I deserved to be treated. [...] When I chose relationships, I chose very poorly, and I ended up being in a relationship with a man who was emotionally and verbally abusive. [...]

Your daughters are looking to you to see what type of man their going to chose some day, and you don't want to be with somebody who's going to belittle them or feel them badly about themselves..."

Bravo. I don't have anything else to say, she puts it very bluntly. Like her, his daughters could grow up and fall into more abusive relationship if he doesn't put a stop to this. In fact, there are already hints of this happening, considering Morgan is dating a 17-year-old right now.

Phil claims it to be an "eye-opener", but the woman has more to say. She says Phil also needs to apologize not just through words, but through his actions. He needs to show that he'll commit to improving his behavior and reversing the damage he's done.

This episode's getting kind of deep...I love it!

The woman says to remember this moment to help him improve as a person and not relapse frequently..."for the people quietly in the background, cheering him on", as she puts it. Interesting choice of words, but hey, what'll help him.

Ending (For Now...)

And with that, Jo has to do the inevitable: say goodbye to the family she’s helped. She greets all the children goodbye as we get some parting thoughts from the parents. Phil says he’s looking forward to improving and helping his family in the long run. Morgan and all the young girls give Jo nice warm hugs, as she also shares her final thoughts.

“If I could say anything to Phil, it’d be that he can’t change the past, but he can change the future of five beautiful children.”

She also says she’ll be getting reports on Phil’s behavior and staying in touch with the family to ensure long term progress. Debbie shares how she’s hopeful for the future and that her children will be safe in the future.

This entire thing really is warm and sincere, even after all we saw this horrible episode.

Thus, Jo leaves, ending the episode and the Davis Family saga once for all.

For now, at least. Because here is the thing… this episode took place in Fall of 2008, nearly 2 decades ago. So that makes you wonder...where are the Davis family now? Have they improved? Are they divorced? Did the children grow up okay? Well, we don’t need to speculate, as the aftermath of this episode is right on the Supernanny wiki! Let's take a quick look. Why you be so laggy??? I hate it here!!! I absolutely hate it! I need to check the laptop. I need to be careful with it.

Epilogue: Where They Ae Now

So first of all, after this episode, you would believe this- but on June 23, 2010, Debbie and Phil had ANOTHER child. A girl named Kennedy, in fact. What?! I'm not saying they shouldn't have had more children, but I find it weird that in a family that was already as troubled and chaotic with 5 children, why would they make the conscious chose to have another one? Debbra also got a dog named Braelynn in April 16, 2017.

Alongisde that, Phil started a lawn service, and-...get this, become a police officer. A POLICE OFFICER?! How did this man become a police officer when he blatantly abused his own children on television? That's kind of concerning...

As for their relationship, they..."secretly divorced" at one point. Which, let's be real, isn't too shocking. What IS shocking is the fact they REMARRIED in June 9, 2019! 

Wh- wh- what? Something's off about all of this in my opinion...

Thankfully, we can now get into some good news relating to Morgan, who I felt the most sympathy for this episode. First of all, Morgan was able to graduate high school in 2011! She ended up marrying Chris Burns, who actually was the same boyfriend that was mentioned in the episode. I was a bit concerned over the age gap, but it appears they live a happy marriage right now. They also have two girls, Skylar Elizabeth Burns (August 29, 2016) and an unnamed daughter (fall of 2019). Hope she and her family are doing well now!

For the other children, they also presumably seem to doing good now. Phillip Jr, despite not having much of a presence in the episode, graduated high school in 2017. He joined the army, is married, and has a son. Another sweet update!

Aside from a few concerns like one of them going missing one day or developing a kidney infection, there have been no reports that anything bad has happened to the younger girls.  I hope they're also doing well.

The last major thing you need to know is that in 2016, the family moved to Coralville, Iowa. However, Morgan decided to stay back home, probably due to her new relationship with Chris.

So that's a run down of what happened to the Davis Family post episode, For the most part, it's pretty cool.

Ending Thoughts

And THAT my friends was all you need to know about the most toxic family ever that aired on Supernanny. Oh boy, do I have a lot to think about this episode and what happened in it. There are plenty of things to take away from it after all.

First of all, I’ve made it evident in all three parts my disdain for Phil Davis Sr. He is the archetype of an abusive parent- one who focuses more on demanding respect than actually respecting others. He is verbally abusive through his horrible language, calling his own daughters the nastiest and more immature things, to degrade and dehumanize them. I’m still so frustrated by how he treated Morgan when all she wore was PANTS AND A SHIRT! He is honestly creepy for that. 

He’s also physically abusive, through hitting, spanking, and just touching his own children like ragdolls as opposed to humans. It’s disgusting and hard to watch, especially we know things like this happen in real life. I feel like there might’ve been a decent person within Phil, because he clearly recognizes his behavior is problematic in multiple instances, and makes constant promises to change. But I don’t know how much I can trust it, given he keeps on doing it.

And then there’s Debbie, who I personally viewed to be sympathetic yet unsympathetic at the same time, and here’s why. You can tell she’s in a very unstable marriage, just through Phil berating her and her taking over most of the responsibilities. The whole thing just feels uncomfortable, and any time Phil tries to step up, it feels awkward. She does not do any physical or verbal abuse towards her children either. 

Despite this, I also view her as extremely apathetic and almost unloving to her children. Think about: she has stayed in this toxic marriage and let Phil bully her own children to the point of tears right in front of her. She knows what’s happening! In the same horrendous slut shaming scene we dissected in part one, she does not even bat an eye towards Phil calling Morgan a literal whore. In fact, she shuts her daughter down! It’s actively infuriating to see, because like- WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING THIS?! In a way, she’s almost as abusive as Phil, despite still being a victim of this toxic family. I feel like that could have been addressed more in episode.

The last major figure in the family is Morgan, who was the most sympathetic and probably most mature one of the entire family. She’s only fourteen, but she’s been constantly parentified, isolated, and put down that she’s had to grow up  faster. This girl clearly just wants to have a good time with her family, boyfriend, and at school, but the circumstances she’s stuck in don’t allow for that. She’s late for school always, she has to treat her sisters like her daughters, and the way Phil treats her is repulsive. She breaks down twice in the episode, and it’s just so dejecting to see. It was so cathartic to see Morgan finally stand up for what she thinks about Phil in the previous part. I wish nothing but the best for her.

By the way, I can’t be the only one interested in the fact Phillip Jr did not have a single line within episode. We only saw glimpses of him looking around his house, witnessing abuse, in one case being abused, and that’s pretty much it. What else happened with him behind the scenes, and why was he silent? Oh yeah, speaking of that, I learned that behind the scenes, the episode was edited pretty meticulously to the request of the parents, so we don’t even know the full story. We only saw glimpses of what’s going on this household and how they act.

From one comment I saw online, apparently Phil was actually making sarcastic jokes during the dart shooting exercise, and he requested they be edited out. Hmmmm….

Speaking of exercises, I have some mixed thoughts on how the recovery segment of the episode was approached. To me, I think therapy should have come first, not last. Like I said in part two, exercises like throwing darts and trust falls feel more like they were made for television as opposed to true psychological change. Which, by the way…for television. We saw child abuse on television. Realistically speaking, with a household as destructive and abusive as this, Jo probably could have called CPS. I heard post episode many did, but nothing came of it. HOW?!?! THIS MAN SMACKED HIS DAUGHTER ON LIVE TV! I- I got nothing to say. I am glad this episode allowed for others to see abusive family dynamics, which could open up real discussions and thoughts within them. 

Remember: if you find yourself in a toxic, abusive, or neglectful home environmental: it’s not your fault. Regardless of how old you are, you deserve better and you can find the courage to tell someone. Whether it’s your parents, your partner, or your grandparents, abuse should never be condoned. It can prove to be extremely damaging and destructive, as we’ve seen today with the Davis family. If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t feel safe at home, don’t suffer in silence, and reach out. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on this infamous episode of Supernanny. I don’t know if I’ll cover more Supernanny episodes in the future. There are some other ones that interest me, such as the Castillo family, known for being the biggest family aired on Supernanny ever with delusional parents; or even the Chapman family, known for having the teen daughters call for help because they were being parentified so badly and slowly being drained.

If these are of interest to you, tell me if you’re interested in me covering them in the future. For now, I hope you liked this three part saga on the Davis family. I got some blogs coming up for the end of spring, so stay tuned! Bye!

- Ninesevenpotatoes, 2026