Merit Street (Dr. Phil Cable Network).

[bmasters1 419]

15 hours ago, SDHIll1980 said:

Phil McGraw has always been a fraudulent assclown, and the sooner this waste of bandwidth of a TV network disappears, the better off we would all be. 

 

I feel the same way about all opinion "news" channels, especially FNC and MSNBC (here lately, new news is no news).

[NowBergen 719]

5 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Oh, and now inexplicably the future CMS administrator.

 

For those of us on medicare, this is a nightmare scenario.  How someone reprimanded by the FDA, more than once,  who has pushed junk science, or one sided issue discussions to create bad television, can effectively oversee a large organization is beyond comprehension.  He ran for Senate in Pennsylvania, while a northern NJ (Cliffside Park, near the GW Bridge) resident and now he gets rewarded.  

[ABC 7 Denver 1755]

12 hours ago, NowBergen said:

 

For those of us on medicare, this is a nightmare scenario.  How someone reprimanded by the FDA, more than once,  who has pushed junk science, or one sided issue discussions to create bad television, can effectively oversee a large organization is beyond comprehension.  He ran for Senate in Pennsylvania, while a northern NJ (Cliffside Park, near the GW Bridge) resident and now he gets rewarded.  

 

For those of us on Medicaid too. lmaooooo

[AmericanErrorist 170]

MCA Media (the Miracle Channel) is bringing what is described as "a version" (presumably including Canadian-produced shows) of the channel to Canada:

 

https://thedesk.net/2025/02/dr-phil-ending-cbs-syndication-merit-street/

Edited February 24 by AmericanErrorist

[TheRolyPoly 2706]

I think Dr. Phil is realizing how hard it is to run such a network like this.

 

His flagship program is on pause, the evening news is on pause, and 40 employees laid off again.

 

Merit TV seems to be in such financial trouble. Not to mention the backlash against airing all those ICE raids.

 

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/dr-phil-primetime-summer-hiatus-layoffs/287-d79bc36e-f954-4325-885a-668e5457892b

Edited June 21 by TheRolyPoly

[mre29 1608]

It's as if it has.... [puts on sunglasses] ...no merit.

 

[tyrannical bastard 4119]

I don't ever advocate for a religious network to expand their activities of "praising the lord" via the airwaves...(except for maybe EWTN since it's tied to the Catholic Church itself)
But in this case, it would be an improvement over the crap-fest that MeritTV is.  Why would TBN ever sell their soul in such a way?  Oh yeah, it's TBN.

Such an odd mix of Dr. Phil, Nancy Grace, and whatever MMA fight is airing in between.  And what does any of this have to do with Christianity?
Shouldn't Oprah have put a stop to this decades ago?

 

The next best thing is the CTN stations putting Newsmax2 on their subchannel feeds.  I"ll stop here before I go ranting any more.

[nathannah 2558]

The funny thing is that EWTN and the Vatican have a terrible relationship because of a lot of things, including EWTN's hate of Vatican II. If Rome could start its own American operation with EWTN's carriage, they would dump them in a heartbeat.

 

And sadly, 'Christian television' has become just a euphemism for 'right-wing' content; the local religious station in Milwaukee airs a lot of wingnut shows and full podcasts now, including the Worldview Report, which actually gets an audience as an 'alternative' to the local newscasts at 10 p.m. and The National Desk.

[mre29 1608]

6 hours ago, nathannah said:

The funny thing is that EWTN and the Vatican have a terrible relationship because of a lot of things, including EWTN's hate of Vatican II. If Rome could start its own American operation with EWTN's carriage, they would dump them in a heartbeat.

 

Well, the Archdiocese of Boston owns CatholicTV, so in a sense, the Vatican has access to that.

 

[Action Newsroom 1331]

Dr. Phil once again refusing accountability.

Merit Street Media is filing for bankruptcy...

and is suing TBN for "breach of contract".

 

https://deadline.com/2025/07/dr-phils-merit-street-media-jv-files-for-bankruptcy-sues-partner-trinity-broadcasting-for-breach-of-contract-1236448188/

[SDHIll1980 125]

14 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

Dr. Phil once again refusing accountability.

Merit Street Media is filing for bankruptcy...

and is suing TBN for "breach of contract".

 

https://deadline.com/2025/07/dr-phils-merit-street-media-jv-files-for-bankruptcy-sues-partner-trinity-broadcasting-for-breach-of-contract-1236448188/

 

Looks like TBN is cutting ties with this clown and the waste of bandwidth that is Merit Street.  I'm sure that some third-rate media platform will save (don't call him Dr.) Phil McGraw's vanity project, otherwise it could be on its last legs.  If he loses the TBN distribution, I give Merit Street before New Year's until its forced to shut down operations, again unless some desperate platform needing content takes mercy on this shitshow of a channel.

Edited July 2 by SDHIll1980

[Action Newsroom 1331]

3 minutes ago, SDHIll1980 said:

I'm sure that some third-rate media platform will save (don't call him Dr.*) Phil McGraw's vanity project, otherwise it could be on its last legs.

 If he loses the TBN distribution, I give Merit Street before New Year's until its forced to shut down operations, again unless some desperate platform needing content takes mercy on this shitshow of a channel.+

*) I'm doing it in terms of irony and oxymoron.

+) let's hope; it'll be a Merry Christmas miracle.

[tyrannical bastard 4119]

I can only imagine what Oprah thinks of all of this.

 

Bonus points if Gayle King told her to come to her senses before he went (further) off the deep end...

[nathannah 2558]

Here's a full breakdown; Mountain Broadcasting (which owns Merit's NY flagship, WMBC) is the second largest creditor, followed by KVMD, its LA station, and Olympusat, along with DirecTV and Nexstar and the COPS producers, among others. So it's more than TBN, but every one of his affiliates has said 'we're done', and I'm sure TBN expected a basic network, not for him to throw them into multiple culture wars. I don't really have sympathy for them because they knew they are literally competing with his own reruns, but those other groups are not going to be made whole.

[T.L. Hughes 914]

I posted this on Broadcast Plaza’s A Block, but might as well highlight it here too. There has been so much turnover for TBN’s diginets in the past decade, to sum up:
* TBN Salsa (their attempt to target English-speaking Latinos/Hispanics) launched and failed within a couple of years;
* The Church Channel became Hillsong Channel and then, in the wake of Hillsong’s scandals, became TBN Inspire
* Smile and Juce TV (formerly JCTV) were merged into a Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite-style scheduling format OTA (Smile during the day and Juce at night for 12 hours each, with their 24-hour feeds relegated to the TBNi streaming offering) for a couple years after Salsa launched, then re-separated back into two 24-hour feeds when Salsa was dropped;
* Juce (and its teen/YA-targeted format) was repurposed as a YouTube channel, while the OTA network got replaced by the family movie channel Positiv (becoming its first commercial diginet venture);
* Merit TV launched under a distribution partnership, hit financial issues within its first year and is now likely on the verge of being kicked off of TBN’s diginet suite;
* Enlace USA was shuffled off to streaming (bc of Merit’s launch);
* Smile (one of the few OTA kids’ channels) folded in January and had its OTA slot replaced by infomercial service OnTV4U.

Edited July 3 by T.L. Hughes

[Rusty Muck 4458]

45 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I can only imagine what Oprah thinks of all of this.

She platformed Phil and Mehmet Oz! Good luck trying to figure out who has been worse or more damaging in the long run.

[AmericanErrorist 170]

In Dr. Phil's filing, he claimed TBN agreed to give the must-carry rights on their O&O stations over to Merit Street (which would have been crazy to do) and then renenged, which they characterized as leaving the operation with "nowhere to send its broadcast signal and nowhere to air its programming".

 

https://deadline.com/2025/07/dr-phil-merit-street-media-jv-bankruptcy-sues-trinity-1236448188/

Edited July 2 by AmericanErrorist

[SFTV 543]

KOFY barely switched from GRIT to Merit a year and 3 months ago. I’m guessing GRIT is leaving the sub channel and back to ch 20.

[Rusty Muck 4458]

On 6/22/2025 at 8:47 PM, nathannah said:

The funny thing is that EWTN and the Vatican have a terrible relationship because of a lot of things, including EWTN's hate of Vatican II. If Rome could start its own American operation with EWTN's carriage, they would dump them in a heartbeat.

There's two EWTNs: the first is the channel that shows masses for shut-ins and daily rosaries (along with Bishop Sheen reruns). The second is the news service, which is to the right of OAN and Newsmax. Raymond Arroyo is their lead "anchor" when he's not chumming up with Laura Ingraham, a friendship that goes back to her conversation to the Church 20 years ago.

 

The Vatican is in a tough spot, it's not like there's enough of an audience to justify the existence of a competing network with a more liberal ideology.

 

On 6/22/2025 at 8:47 PM, nathannah said:

And sadly, 'Christian television' has become just a euphemism for 'right-wing' content; the local religious station in Milwaukee airs a lot of wingnut shows and full podcasts now, including the Worldview Report, which actually gets an audience as an 'alternative' to the local newscasts at 10 p.m. and The National Desk.

It always had been a euphemism for the right-wing. CBN, TBN, PTL and even individual televangelists have had those beliefs for practically forever.

[ColtFromGulfcoast 742]

2 hours ago, Action Newsroom said:

Dr. Phil once again refusing accountability.

Merit Street Media is filing for bankruptcy...

and is suing TBN for "breach of contract".

 

https://deadline.com/2025/07/dr-phils-merit-street-media-jv-files-for-bankruptcy-sues-partner-trinity-broadcasting-for-breach-of-contract-1236448188/

You cant change what you dont acknowledge. 

[Big Rollo Smokes 274]

2 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I posted this on Broadcast Plaza’s A Block, but might as well highlight it here too. There has been so much turnover for TBN’s diginets in the past decade, to sum up:
* TBN Salsa (their attempt to target English-speaking Latinos/Hispanics) launched and failed within a couple of years;
* The Church Channel became Hillsong Channel and then, in the wake of Hillsong’s scandals, became TBN Inspire
* Smile and Juce TV (formerly JCTV) were merged into a Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite-style scheduling format OTA (Smile during the day and Juce at night for 12 hours each) for a couple years after Salsa launched, then re-separated back into two 24-hour feeds when Salsa was dropped;
* Juce (and its teen/YA-targeted format) was repurposed as a YouTube channel, while the OTA network got replaced by the family movie channel Positiv (becoming its first commercial diginet venture);
* Merit TV launched under a distribution partnership, hit financial issues within its first year and is now likely on the verge of being kicked off of TBN’s diginet suite;
* Enlace USA was shuffled off to streaming (bc of Merit’s launch);
* Smile (one of the few OTA kids’ channels) folded in January and had its OTA slot replaced by infomercial service OnTV4U.

For what it's worth most of this goes back to the Crouch family feud, in which Matthew and his wife Laurie (and by extension, their sons Caylan and Cody) prevailed over Paul Jr. and his children for succession rights.

 

P.J. and his son Brandon created JCTV, renamed JUCE after P.J. and his offspring were banished from TBN. Smile (of a Child) and the Church Channel were Jan Crouch's creations. As soon as she died, Matt and Laurie changed course on both.

 

TBN stayed away from wading into political waters when Paul Sr. and Jan were running the show. Of course, that all changed when Matt and Laurie gained full control once both his parents were gone. I see that as part natural evolution, and part Matt and Laurie seeking greater influence in those circles.

Edited July 2 by Big Rollo Smokes

[mer764KCTV5 175]

4 hours ago, AmericanErrorist said:

In Dr. Phil's filing, he claimed TBN agreed to give the must-carry rights on their O&O stations over to Merit Street (which would have been crazy to do) and then renenged, which they characterized as leaving the operation with "nowhere to send its broadcast signal and nowhere to air its programming".

 

https://deadline.com/2025/07/dr-phil-merit-street-media-jv-bankruptcy-sues-trinity-1236448188/

 

Then air it on cable... oh right... Cable is dying as we speak.

 

4 hours ago, nathannah said:

Here's a full breakdown; Mountain Broadcasting (which owns Merit's NY flagship, WMBC) is the second largest creditor, followed by KVMD, its LA station, and Olympusat, along with DirecTV and Nexstar and the COPS producers, among others. So it's more than TBN, but every one of his affiliates has said 'we're done', and I'm sure TBN expected a basic network, not for him to throw them into multiple culture wars. I don't really have sympathy for them because they knew they are literally competing with his own reruns, but those other groups are not going to be made whole.

 

NEXSTAR?! I mean, I know thay Nexstar might not be the best Broadcasting company/corporation but they don't need to be involved in any of that. Also, I am absolutely sure that the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) wanted a basic network airing Dr. Phil programming, not any of the stuff that is being shown that just sends them (TBN) into culture wars. 

 

It should also be reminded that even the Tri-State Christian Television Network (TCT) isn't safe. (From CNN. —> https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/02/media/dr-phil-cable-network-bankruptcy)

[TheRolyPoly 2706]

2 minutes ago, mer764KCTV5 said:

 

Then air it on cable... oh right... Cable is dying as we speak.

 

 

NEXSTAR?! I mean, I know thay Nexstar might not be the best Broadcasting company/corporation but they don't need to be involved in any of that. Also, I am absolutely sure that the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) wanted a basic network airing Dr. Phil programming, not any of the stuff that is being shown that just sends them (TBN) into culture wars. 

 

It should also be reminded that even the Tri-State Christian Television Network (TCT) isn't safe. (From CNN. —> https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/02/media/dr-phil-cable-network-bankruptcy)

 

I mean... Nexstar-operated WYZZ Bloomington carries it on 43.3.

[nathannah 2558]

23 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I mean... Nexstar-operated WYZZ Bloomington carries it on 43.3.

It's also on KAZT's third subchannel as they de facto operate Loudon, and Sinclair is KTXD through Cunningham. KVMD indeed kicked them off their LA main channel coverage a few weeks ago.

 

Current affiliate list

[ATLNewsExpert 486]

5 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

There's two EWTNs: the first is the channel that shows masses for shut-ins and daily rosaries (along with Bishop Sheen reruns). The second is the news service, which is to the right of OAN and Newsmax. Raymond Arroyo is their lead "anchor" when he's not chumming up with Laura Ingraham, a friendship that goes back to her conversation to the Church 20 years ago.

 

The Vatican is in a tough spot, it's not like there's enough of an audience to justify the existence of a competing network with a more liberal ideology.

 

It always had been a euphemism for the right-wing. CBN, TBN, PTL and even individual televangelists have had those beliefs for practically forever.

I would argue maybe bringing "Vatican Media" to the States via Roku and other streaming means and double down on content, even make actual newscasts from the reports from Vatican News? But does the cost justify it when the church is already in a tough financial spot, probably not.