Television personality Dr. Phil McGraw expressed genuine confusion this week after his right-wing media venture Merit Street Media collapsed into bankruptcy 15 months after launch, apparently unable to comprehend why Americans who enjoyed watching him berate vulnerable people declined to watch him berate vulnerable people while promoting ICE raids.
McGraw, whose psychology license has been inactive since 2006, launched Merit Street in November 2023 with the declaration that "American families and our core values are under attack"—a marketing strategy analysts described as "telling your audience they're idiots for not already agreeing with you politically."
The network averaged just 27,000 weekly viewers by late 2024, roughly the same number of people who accidentally leave their TV on overnight. Despite this, McGraw forced loyal producers to relocate their families from California to Texas for a "state-of-the-art broadcast center" that would file for bankruptcy within a year.
Merit Street laid off dozens of employees in August 2024—moments before setting up a large buffet for on-air guests featuring Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The timing was described by former staffers as "an absolutely perfect encapsulation of the Merit Street Media experience."
During the network's existence, McGraw volunteered extensively for the Trump administration, attending ICE raids, leading the White House Religious Liberty Commission, and appearing with the president after Texas flooding. He apparently believed filming himself alongside federal immigration agents would make compelling television, a calculation Nielsen ratings suggested was incorrect.
The network sued distributor Trinity Broadcasting Network for nearly $100 million, claiming withheld payments and malfunctioning equipment. Trinity countersued, accusing McGraw of fraud and inflating viewership statistics. Legal experts noted that watching two entities built on moral guidance accuse each other of lying was "poetic, in a late-capitalism kind of way."
The Professional Bull Riders league also sued Merit Street for $3.5 million in unpaid licensing fees, with one entertainment reporter noting that "getting sued by the Professional Bull Riders really completes the whole Texas conservative media entrepreneur experience."
Two weeks after filing bankruptcy, McGraw announced a new company called Envoy Media, prompting creditors to accuse him of orchestrating the Chapter 11 specifically to avoid debts—an allegation financial analysts called "impressively shameless."
McGraw told the New York Times in August he doesn't think he's "qualified to talk about politics," a statement that came months after appearing at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally and creating shows titled "Culture War BULL CRAP" and podcasts called "Cowardly Democrats Spit in the Face of All Texans."
At press time, McGraw was reportedly considering returning to his original business model of exploiting people without pretending it was patriotic.
