By Katherine Tinsley
10:34am PDT, Jul 7, 2025
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Dr. Phil McGraw's fledgling cable TV network, Merit Street Media, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just a year after it was founded. The network is also taking legal action against business partner Trinity Broadcasting Network for its role in the failure.
Keep reading for the details…
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Merit Street Media filed a lawsuit against its former business partner, TBN, for intentionally tanking the fledgling network. "TBN formed Merit Street as a joint venture and contractually committed to provide valuable services to the joint venture," the lawsuit alleges, according to
TheWrap. "But TBN then reneged on its obligations and abused its position as the controlling shareholder of Merit Street to improperly and unilaterally burden Merit Street with unsustainable debt, doing so either without notice or in direct violation of promises not to do so."
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According to legal documents, Merit Street was forced to "pay or incur obligations to third parties in excess of $100 million," and due to the cost, the organization had to file for bankruptcy.
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According to Dr. Phil McGraw's company, TBN had a history of making decisions that they knew would be harmful to Merit Street Media. "[There was] 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 alleges.
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A spokesperson for Merit Street Media accused TBN of breach of contract. "Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is being sued by Merit Street Media (MSM) for failing to provide clearly agreed-upon national distribution and other significant foundational commitments critical to the network's continuing success and viability," a Merit spokesperson told TheWrap. "The suit is part of a restructuring proceeding also initiated by MSM."
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The lawsuit — which accuses TBN of "shoddy production services" — claims the "most egregious" problem was that Merit Street programs could not be seen nationally due to "withholding distribution payments despite repeatedly acknowledging those distribution payments were 100% TBN's sole responsibility." The suit claims, "Simply put, as a result of TBN's conduct, Merit Street has nowhere to send its broadcast signal and nowhere to air its programming."
