Talk show guru and ICE champion Dr. Phil has become embroiled in a legal battle so dramatic that it might have made for a compelling episode of his eponymous old talk show.
On Tuesday, the world’s largest Christian TV network accused Dr. Phil and his production company of fraud and breach of contract as part of a “years-long fraudulent scheme” to enrich the TV personality.
Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) alleges that Dr. Phil, whose full name is Phil McGraw, overpromised and underdelivered when he struck a $500 million deal with TBN to produce and distribute his show after he left CBS in 2023.
The complaint, filed in a federal bankruptcy court in Texas, says that McGraw made false statements to create the illusion of a bidding war between TBN and CBS.
McGraw’s production company, Peteski, allegedly “reiterated numerous representations related to the then-current advertising revenue, product integrations, production costs, and viewership of the Dr. Phil Show.”
Using these misrepresentations, McGraw was able to coax TBN into paying his company $20 million up front, and another $50 million every year for 10 years in exchange for 160 new Dr. Phil episodes.
Those new episodes were supposed to be 90 minutes each and be filmed over six to seven months.
However, the network claims that the new episodes never arrived, despite TBN building a new state-of-the-art production space in Texas expressly for their production.
TBN also claims that McGraw originally promised to hand over the rights to The Dr. Phil Show library of old episodes, but then reversed course and “brazenly demanded that TBN pay him $100 million to obtain a 50 percent interest in the media library.”
A spokesperson for McGraw denied the new allegations to The Hollywood Reporter, claiming that 214 new episodes of Dr. Phil Primetime aired on Merit TV. “To say otherwise is false,” the spokesperson noted.
Merit Street Media, which runs Merit TV, was created as a joint media venture between TBN and McGraw, with the Christian network owning a 70 percent stake and McGraw’s company owning the rest.
Upon launching in 2023, the company said it aimed to provide “traditional family content while also disrupting the news landscape with unbiased reporting on issues that matter most to Americans.”
The network has a streaming service and spots on multiple cable providers. It’s anchored by McGraw’s show, Dr. Phil Primetime, but also features shows with familiar faces like Nancy Grace and Steve Harvey—another point of contention in TBN’s complaint.
“After refusing to allow Merit Street to broadcast any of McGraw’s Dr. Phil Show library content… McGraw and Peteski instead insisted that Merit Street enter into expensive distribution deals with McGraw’s friends, including Steve Harvey, Nancy Grace… Chris Harrison, and Lauren Zima,” the complaint alleges.
Harrison is the former host of The Bachelor and is married to Zima, a reporter for Entertainment Tonight.
To complicate matters even further, Merit Street Media lodged its own complaint against TBN as it simultaneously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.
Prior to the labyrinthine legal saga engulfing his media company, McGraw was attracting more attention off-screen this year than on it.
In January, he accompanied ICE agents in Chicago as they conducted immigration raids and was caught on camera being identified by a man who ICE was detaining.
“How do you know me?” McGraw asked the man.
“I’ve seen Dr. Phil on TV,” the man responded.
Dr. Phil joined ICE officers again in June while they were controversially dispatched to Los Angeles.
Depending on the fate of his company’s legal battles, McGraw might have more of a future as an ICE agent than a TV host.
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