Dr. Phil’s cable network bankrupt, sues former partner, Christian broadcaster TBN

Dr. Phil is known for his blunt, no-nonsense style. He often tells his guests "You can't change what you don't acknowledge," and it turns out Dr. Phil is acknowledging something himself: his business Merit Street Media is in Chapter 11.

Merit Street Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than 2 years after it launched and McGraw’s company is suing Trinity Broadcasting Network, alleging a breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

On Wednesday, Merit Street filed for bankruptcy and the correlating lawsuit naming TBN as a defendant with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas. It alleged that TBN, Merit Street’s former broadcasting partner, “abused its position as the controlling shareholder.” Merit Street claims in the lawsuit that it was forced to “pay or incur obligations to third parties in excess of $100 million.”

“These failures by TBH were neither unintended nor inadvertent. They were a conscious, intentional pattern of choices made with full awareness that the consequence of which was to sabotage and seal the fate of a new but already nationally acclaimed network,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also alleges that TBN’s production services were “comically dysfunctional. Although it promised the equivalent of the professional facilities and services that Dr. Phil had long relied on when producing his show in Los Angeles for CBS, the Joint Venture Agreement were nothing of the sort. TBN provided screens and teleprompters that black out during live shows, an incomplete control room operating out of a truck, an unusable cell phone app for viewers, and amateur video editing software. Merit Street staff often could not even make phone calls in the studio due to poor cell coverage.”

In its bankruptcy filing, Merit Street, a the Fort Wort, Texas-based company reported assets and labilities between $100 million - $500 million.

To view the full report and complaint, click here.