{"id":81861,"date":"2025-08-14T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/81861\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T09:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:42:07","slug":"dr-phil-fires-back-at-merit-street-creditors-tbn-pbr-in-bankruptcy-filing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/81861\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Phil Fires Back at Merit Street Creditors TBN, PBR in Bankruptcy Filing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDr. Phil<\/a> says two creditors of his bankrupt company Merit Street Media<\/a> \u2014 Christian broadcaster Trinity Broadcasting Network and Professional Bull Riders \u2014 are trying to smear him in \u201cincendiary\u201d legal filings and trying to drive down Merit Street\u2019s value. And his lawyers invoked a judge\u2019s ruling in the Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively legal fight ordering the parties to refrain from using \u201cdisrespectful\u201d language, saying the same directive should apply in this case.<\/p>\n

\n\tPhil McGraw<\/a>\u2018s Peteski Productions<\/a> is the proposed debtor-in-possession lender of Merit, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection<\/a> on July 2. Merit Street\u00a0also sued TBN, the company\u2019s former distribution partner, alleging breach of contract and alleging it \u201cabused its position as the controlling shareholder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an Aug. 12 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas, Peteski lawyers objected to the motion filed by TBN and related party TCT Ministries to dismiss Merit\u2019s Chapter 11 case, convert it to a Chapter 7 liquidation or appoint a Chapter 11 trustee. Peteski also objected to PBR\u2019s partial joinder in support of the TBN and TCT motion. The Peteski filing requested the court deny the TBN and PBR motions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the outset of this Bankruptcy Case, both [TBN and PBR] entered into a \u2018press strategy\u2019 fueled in large part by incendiary pleadings they knew would be picked up by the media which, predictably, did occur,\u201d Peteski\u2019s filing says. \u201cThe effect of this is to not only insult and denigrate Peteski and Dr. McGraw but also to depress the value of the Debtor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Trinity\u2019s motion to dismiss the case, it called Merit Street\u2019s bankruptcy filing a \u201csham proceeding orchestrated by one man \u2014 McGraw\u201d and asserted that the plan was carried out \u201cin the dead of night\u2026 designed to allow McGraw to make off like a thief.\u201d PBR, in a motion filed last week to compel document production from Merit Street,<\/a> the TKO Group-owned company said, \u201cAll evidence presently suggests that Phillip C. McGraw (\u2018Dr. Phil\u2019) orchestrated this Chapter 11 Case to avoid menacing litigation against PBR and jumpstart Envoy Media Co. (\u2018Envoy\u2019), a brand-new media venture he founded the day before Debtor filed this case, with the Debtor\u2019s remaining assets free and clear of any legacy encumbrances and obligations he made on the Debtor\u2019s behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPer Peteski\u2019s filing: \u201cThe Motion to Dismiss and PBR Joinder are full of inflammatory and damaging assertions of bad faith, improper conduct, and self-dealing that are unfounded, speculative, and unsupported by the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a bankruptcy court hearing, Trinity\u2019s counsel \u201cfalsely stated that Dr. McGraw created \u2018zero\u2019 episodes\u201d for Merit Street out of a contractually obligated 160 90-minute episodes and \u201cpocketed millions of dollars,\u201d according to Peteski\u2019s filing. \u201cThe evidence will show that TBN and Peteski decided to fit \u2018Dr. Phil Primetime\u2019 into a 60-minute time slot despite there being enough footage shot to accommodate the longer time period and, indeed, \u2018Dr. Phil Primetime\u2019 did stream after the initial hour was over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Merit Street\u2019s \u201cearly financial troubles,\u201d from the April 2024 launch of the Merit Network through May 2025, Peteski produced and broadcast new original programing the network including 220 episodes of \u201cDr. Phil Primetime.\u201d Those episodes included interviews with such public figures as President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin\u00a0Netanyahu, per the filing. Trinity Broadcasting, despite \u201chaving agreed to pay for this high-quality programming,\u201d \u201cdefaulted on its obligations and now owes Peteski millions of dollars,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Trinity\u2019s counsel also said during the same bankruptcy hearing that McGraw \u201cbragged internally about his \u2018gangster move\u2019 to take over\u201d Merit Street. \u201cThe evidence will show that this statement was made by misrepresenting an email [from Dr. Phil] which TBN improperly and illegally accessed off its server which it was hosting for the Debtor as part of its contractually obligated services under the Joint Venture Agreement,\u201d according to Peteski\u2019s filing. (Dr. Phil\u2019s lawyers don\u2019t provide context for his \u201cgangster move\u201d comment.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Peteski\u2019s filing, Merit Street\u2019s \u201ccorporate actions and decisions were taken in full compliance
with Texas law and its corporate by-laws. The decision to declare bankruptcy was far from being a \u2018sham\u2019 and was instead a painful decision after much sweat equity had been invested into the Merit Network journey and brand development by Dr. McGraw.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Dr. Phil\u2019s lawyers, \u201cPeteski, having been deprived of a platform for \u2018Dr. Phil Primetime\u2019 and other programming, is in the process of rebuilding a network from the ground up. That network will be called Envoy. The suggestion that this was Peteski\u2019s preferred way of proceeding is belied by the facts.\u201d Peteski Productions invested almost $50 million \u201cin an effort to save the Merit Network,\u201d according to the filing. In addition, when Trinity obtained a continuance of the final debtor-in-possession financing hearing that would have approved a loan to allow the payment of Merit\u2019s employees for their pre-bankruptcy work, \u201cPeteski itself wrote checks totaling almost $1,000,000 so these workers, many of whom were in dire need of the money, would get paid,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeteski\u2019s lawyers requested the court issue a \u201cDondi\u201d instruction to parties in the case, a reference to a decision in 1988 case Dondi Properties Corp. v. Commerce Sav. & Loan Assoc. that \u201cset out standards of conduct for lawyers and litigants\u201d in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition, Dr. Phil\u2019s lawyers say, the court should \u201cadmonish all parties and their counsel to adhere to an order\u201d similar to the one U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman entered in the case between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. In that proceeding, Judge Liman ordered in part that \u201cAll individuals filing documents in this case\u2026 are advised that they should not in any submission to this Court use language that is disrespectful of the parties, their counsel or the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPeteski\u2019s filing claims that to date there are roughly 700,000 subscribers on the MeritTV app, and \u201cits platform could be very attractive either on its own or in combination with another investor\/buyer. The actions of Trinity and PBR have been aimed to destroy that value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company\u2019s filing concludes: \u201cPeteski urges the Court to decide the pending Motion to Dismiss, and PBR Joinder, and any responses thereto as expeditiously as its schedule will permit. Justice delayed is justice denied. In this case, unfortunately, delayed justice will be a death sentence for the Debtor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Phil says two creditors of his bankrupt company Merit Street Media \u2014 Christian broadcaster Trinity Broadcasting Network…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[9666,88,9952,57210,52982,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-81861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-dr-phil","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-merit-street-media","11":"tag-peteski-productions","12":"tag-phil-mcgraw","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81861","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=81861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}