Merit Street Media, the Texas media company founded by TV personality and psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, has filed for bankruptcy amid an ongoing legal fight with Trinity Broadcasting Network. 

The Fort Worth-based company claims that TBN failed to "live up to its contractual obligations" as the "controlling shareholder" of Merit Street, leaving the media company founded by McGraw with over $100 million in debt, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Dallas. 

Launched in April 2024, Merit Street is "going dark" just over a year after its debut because, it says, TBN "has refused to honor its commitment" to provide national distribution for the network, which features a programming lineup anchored by "Dr. Phil Primetime" along with "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and "The Island with Bear Grylls," among other shows.

Shortly after the network was formed, however, TBN "reneged on its obligations and abused its position as the controlling shareholder of Merit Street," the lawsuit states. One of those alleged abuses included causing Merit Street to "enter into expensive distribution agreements with third parties" that cost upwards of $2.6 million monthly and total expenses of nearly $96 million, according to the suit.

"These failures by TBN were neither unintended nor inadvertent," the lawsuit read. "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 suit also alleged TBN provided "shoddy production services," such as teleprompters that suffered from frequent malfunctions, "including blackouts during live Dr. Phil episodes before studio audiences" and a sub-industry standard control room that "ran out of a temporary setup in a truck."

"This is hardly the bargain the parties reached," the lawsuit states. "It is not 'first class quality,' nor is it 'comparable' to other syndicated television programming."

CP reached out Friday for comment from Merit Street Media and TBN. This story will be updated if a response is received.

Launched in 1973 by Paul and Jan Crouch, TBN eventually became the largest Christian cable station in the world. TBN directors later became embroiled in litigation surrounding allegations of financial corruption at TBN and mistreatment of relatives who opposed the alleged misuse of funds. 

CEO Matthew Crouch, the son of Paul and Jan Crouch, currently oversees the company.

McGraw reportedly teamed up with the well-known religious broadcaster because of its experience in successfully owning over 30 TV stations. Despite the partnership with TBN, Merit Street Media would not be a religious network nor feature any of TBN's staple Christian programming.

In April 2024, McGraw appeared at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, to promote his then-nascent media network, where he emphasized what he described as Merit Media's commitment to factual reporting. "We aim to tell people what happened and let them decide," he said.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/dr-phils-media-company-files-for-bankruptcy-sues-tbn.html