{"id":262623,"date":"2025-10-31T09:55:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/262623\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T09:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:55:21","slug":"what-we-know-about-dr-phils-failed-merit-street-media-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/262623\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about Dr. Phil\u2019s failed Merit Street Media in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daytime TV\u2019s most popular psychologist, Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, teamed up with Fort Worth-based Trinity Broadcasting Network to launch his new television network<\/a> in 2024, Merit Street Media. <\/p>\n

By July of this year, Merit Street had filed for bankruptcy. <\/p>\n

And then things really got messy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, after a weekslong hearing more than a month ago on a motion to dismiss or to convert Merit Street Media\u2019s Chapter 11 bankruptcy<\/a>, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Everett converted the case to a Chapter 7 from the bench, according to The Texas Lawbook. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no hope for rehabilitation,\u201d Everett said.<\/p>\n

He called the case an anomaly and said it came to him in \u201cliquidation mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business Briefing<\/p>\n

Become a business insider with the latest news.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Everett said he had found several reasons to convert the case,which included not trusting the testimony<\/a> of Chief Reconstructing Officer Gary Broadbent, a missing text Dr. Phil McGraw deleted and the makeup of the unsecured creditors committee.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The newsroom set at Merit Street Media in Fort Worth on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. <\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

McGraw\u2019s vision for a different kind of network <\/p>\n

Merit Street was not an endeavor that McGraw took on just for the fun of it. He had a vision for a nation caught in a political and cultural schism, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think families in America are under attack. Some of it is intentional, and some of it is not. I think some of it is the byproduct of progress,\u201d McGraw told The News in 2024. \u201cI think it has to be dealt with. We have to change with the times and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move came after he ended a 21-year relationship with CBS Media Ventures<\/a> in May 2023. McGraw\u2019s own network would be anchored by his new show, Dr. Phil Primetime, and would also feature live news programs, true crime dramas and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m making a shift because I want to do something different. I\u2019m really proud of what we did for 21 seasons at CBS, but I want to do something with a broader platform and wider guardrails,\u201d McGraw told The News in 2024. \u201cTo do that, I needed more than an hour a day. All of it is based on the value system that I\u2019ve really developed across the last 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/p>\n

Photos of Dr. Phil and Oprah in the \u2018Dr. Phil museum\u2019 at Merit Street Media in Fort Worth on Tuesday, <\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Merit Street was designed to be a 24\/7 network, with TBN serving as a distribution partner. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is for this to be a destination network that you can turn on in the morning and leave on all day long without having to worry about what your kids are going to get exposed to,\u201d McGraw told The News in 2024. \u201cI want this to be a return to family values, common sense and focusing on what makes this country great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite TBN being a Christian-based broadcasting network, McGraw said he wanted a separation between church and the network, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re partnering with them on this facility, but we won\u2019t have any religious programming. There\u2019s a pretty strong dividing line between us two,\u201d Mcgraw said. \u201cTBN are tremendous supporters of what we\u2019re doing here, and we share a lot of values that give us some compatibility, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s an overlap, which is a good thing. They got their lane, we got our lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to The Texas Lawbook, Merit accused Trinity Broadcasting Network and its affiliate TCT Ministries of failing to fulfill their obligations under the 2023 agreement that established Merit Street. Merit alleges Trinity violated the agreement by charging for production services, not covering distribution costs and delivering \u201cshoddy\u201d production work.<\/p>\n

Based on court documents, Merit has between $100 million and $500 million in assets but has liabilities in the same range.<\/p>\n

Shortly after filing for bankruptcy, McGraw launched Dallas-based ENVOY Media Co.<\/a>, a new media venture that delivers live news, original entertainment and interactive content across traditional and digital platforms.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daytime TV\u2019s most popular psychologist, Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, teamed up with Fort Worth-based Trinity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1062,88,2442,6655,84438,10815,92,141366],"class_list":{"0":"post-262623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-legal","12":"tag-local-companies","13":"tag-media","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-tv-personalities"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}