Dr. Phil was America's best-known celebrity therapist. How did his media network crash?

[Zorro]

• Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media filed for bankruptcy in July 2025, following clashes with a distributor and a decline in the syndicated TV market.
• A federal judge ordered the network liquidated, finding evidence Phillip McGraw deleted text messages to conceal plans favoring certain creditors over others.
• McGraw has since launched Envoy Media, prompting accusations the bankruptcy was filed in bad faith specifically to escape creditors and fund his new venture, which he denies.

It was not a good day for Dr. Phil.

Phillip McGraw, the genial celebrity psychologist who spent a career calling out the behavior of others and doling out zingers, found himself upbraided by a bankruptcy judge.

Merit Street Media, McGraw’s new network, had filed for bankruptcy protection in July, a little more than a year after he launched the media startup, and then sued its distribution partner, Trinity Broadcasting Network.

During a nearly three-hour hearing in Dallas last month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Everett said that he’d “never seen a case” like the Chapter 11 filing McGraw’s company was attempting.

Everett cited evidence indicating McGraw had “violated” a court order by deleting “unflattering” text messages that allegedly described his plan to use the bankruptcy to “wipe out” creditor claims.

“What makes this case unique, unfortunately, is that it has been plagued with the attempted destruction of relevant evidence and less than truthful testimony by some of the key players,” said Everett, alluding to McGraw and his associates in the case.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-11-24/dr-phil-celebrity-mcgraw-therapist-bankruptcy-oprah-winfrey

[dlk]

1. McGraw has a bad faith history

Scratch the surface.

[walkingman]

2. Good riddance to a TV creep. About the same level as Jerry Springer.

[Wednesdays]

7. At least Springer didn't pretend to be a "therapist." nt

[UTUSN]

3. Lack of insight, his persoal fatal foible. - oh, "foible" is too *mild*.

[Clouds Passing]

4. People finally figured out he's a fraud

[Blue Owl]

5. Because he's a fucking dickhead

[Wednesdays]

9. Didn't help that he cozied up with MAGA. nt

[LakeVermilion]

6. I felt sorry for his wife...

I didn't watch often, or tuned in early for the next program, but his wife had to sit through all of his programs, so he could walk off the set with her.

[Omnipresent]

10. He wanted his viewers to see..

That he owned her!

[MagickMuffin]

8. Answer: because Dr Phil is a grifter, a fraud, a phony

I don’t believe he ever had intentions to create a new network, I believe it was all about the grift.

[Permanut]

11. Mango Mussolini will be so proud..

I see a high level spot in the Cabinet in his future.

[Mike Nelson]

12. How?

... maybe people got tired of his snake oil? Men rubbed it on their head and it grew no hair? Women put it on their face and it grew more wrinkles? I think his media bankruptcy is probably an attempt to make money.

[NewHendoLib]

13. Just a narcissistic quack

[markie]

14. karma

[MIButterfly]

15. I never liked him. I never watched him.

Thank you, Oprah, for unleashing that loathsome creature, as well as the repugnant Dr. Oz upon us, not to mention dubbing Ghoulini "America's mayor" after 9/11. You've done enough damage.