Dr. Phil's 'Anti-Woke' Television Network Seeks Bankruptcy Just One Year After Launch

Last year, in an effort to capitalize on anti-woke backlash, Dr. Phil (real name Phil McGraw) launched his own TV channel, which he said would be used to fight the good fight against the far left’s radical crazies. Merit Street Media, according to McGraw, would be a vanguard in the battle for the soul of America.

“Merit Street Media will be a resource of information and strategies to fight for America and its families, which are under a cultural ‘woke’ assault as never before,” said McGraw at the time. “I love this country and I believe family is the backbone of our society. Together we are going to stand strong and fight for the very soul and sanity of America and get things that matter back on track.”

Merit Street partnered with Trinity Broadcasting Network, which calls itself the “most-watched faith-and-family broadcasting network” in the world.

Since then, things have not gone particularly well for the TV mogul’s company. Last summer, just a few months after it launched, the company laid off 28 staff members, which was purported to be over a third of its staff at the time. Then, last month, Merit Street laid off another 40 employees, culling the staff further.

This week, Merit Street also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Variety reports. At the same time, the company has sued TBN, and accused it of sabotaging the business, the outlet notes. Merit Street claims that TBN has “abused its position as the controlling shareholder” and that, as a result, Merit Street was forced to “pay or incur obligations to third parties in excess of $100 million.”

The litigation further has stated that TBN made the “conscious and knowing choice to cause Merit Street to lose its national distribution by withholding distribution payments despite repeatedly acknowledging those distribution payments were 100% TBN’s sole responsibility.” The company further states that TBN provided production services that 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 supposed ‘first class’ services TBN promised under the Joint Venture Agreement were nothing of the sort. TBN provided screens and teleprompters that blacked 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.”

The bankruptcy motion filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas states that the company has reported “assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million,” The Daily Beast writes.

“These failures by TBN were neither unintended nor inadvertent,” Merit Street says in its lawsuit. “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.”

Gizmodo reached out to Merit Street for more information. A representative from TBN said that the company currently had no comment on the litigation.