T Dog’s Think Tank: Dr. Phil makes mockery of immigration crisis

Former daytime host “rides along” with officials to boost his fledgling TV network

This space in September 2023 jokingly suggested Dr. Phil McGraw should come to town and give a hardened pep talk to the Chicago Bears after the Kansas City Chiefs blew out the team in front of millions of viewers and Taylor Swift, who was at the game.

Well, Dr. Phil did come to Chicago Sunday – not to read Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles the riot act for forcing Bears fans to put up with three seasons of horrible football, but to ride along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to bust those illegally in the United States in a stunt to boost his struggling, barely watched TV network, which is available online but having trouble getting carriage on major platforms.

Dr Phil is embedded with @RealTomHoman for ICE operation in Chicago.

For full live coverage of the operation, download the MeritTV app. pic.twitter.com/Q5lI8589AM

— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) January 26, 2025

Now, to be clear, I won’t be getting into the immigration debate here, but examining how Dr. Phil is trying to take advantage of the situation.

McGraw arrived with new border czar Tom Homan and others and provided exclusive access to him and his Merit Street staff (local media was not invited.) The raids were live-streamed on Merit Street’s app (but not on the actual network for some reason) and according to the Sun-Times, gave some suspects the third degree including a 42-year-old immigrant from Thailand, accused of being a sex offender. Merit Street did name those arrested, but federal officials didn’t confirm any details to the newspaper.

JUST IN: The first arrest in Chicago with @RealTomHoman was a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand.

For full live coverage of the operation, download the MeritTV app. pic.twitter.com/KEcphUWDDJ

— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) January 27, 2025

The immigration debate heightened after President Trump won re-election, and vowed to get tough on illegal residents – sending out agents across the country to deport those not legally living in the country. Even though Homan said Chicago would be “ground zero” for immigration raids, they’ve occurred in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, and several New Jersey cities. The raids had a profound impact, leaving streets in certain Chicago neighborhoods  – especially Little Village (South Lawndale) – practically empty last week as immigrants stayed home from work, school, and other venues, hurting businesses along 26th Street.

But it was perfect programming for McGraw, who urged his followers on social media to download an app to watch. So why did he show up in Chicago? Something called “transparency.”

“Transparency is going to be important for people to understand what’s going on and what’s not going on,” McGraw told the Chicago Tribune in an interview published Monday night. “I’ve read a lot of things about sweeping neighborhoods and raiding businesses and even schools and things like that. That is just absolutely untrue. That’s not going on.” (and yet, immigration officials arrested a woman in an Atlanta church Sunday.)

McGraw rose to fame thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who appeared on her show every Tuesday in the early 2000s and got his own daytime talker in 2002. Dr. Phil was a tremendous hit, ranking only behind Oprah, and became syndication’s most-watched talk show after she retired and in 2022, slipped back to second place behind Live With Kelly and Ryan. McGraw decided to end his show two years ago with CBS Media Ventures so he could focus on other projects.

That “project” turned out to be Merit Street, and initially was to be a cable network at a time viewers were cutting the cord. When Merit Street was announced, he noted: “American families and our core values are under attack. I love this country, and I believe family is the backbone of our society. Together we are going to stand strong and fight for the very soul and sanity of America and get things that matter back on track.” 

Merit Street launched last April from newly built studios in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and hired the guy who put Jerry Springer on NBC 5’s newscasts as Chief Operating Officer. Coverage so far has been spotty, with Merit available as a dot-two channel on TBN’s over-the-air digital space (including WWTO 35.2) in forty percent of the country. WJYS was listed as a primary affiliate at launch but never aired a minute of their programming (ironically, WJYS did agree to a deal with the new Chicago Sports Network to take over the 62.2 and 62.3 channels on their digital space.) While Merit is available on Comcast, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, Dish, and Samsung Plus TV, Merit has yet to strike a deal with any virtual provider (YouTubeTV, Fubo, etc.) though their live stream is available for free on connected apps like Amazon Fire and Roku (I’m sure that pleases cable and satellite providers who pay for it…)

Just four months after launch, Merit Street laid off more than 40 staffers without reason or severance as Texas is a right-to-work state. Merit then encountered a dispute with the Professional Bull Riding Association, which resulted in the channel pulling all its programming. Amazingly, no original shows were canceled, including McGraw’s Dr. Phil Primetime, a rehash of his daytime show. In the last few seasons of the original Dr. Phil, it was drifting to right-leaning topics as it increasingly became out of step with what the rest of daytime TV was offering, and faced legal issues involving racism allegations behind the scenes (no surprise there) and a Utah teen who said she was sexually harassed at a camp the show sent her to. McGraw’s show basically came a second coming of The Morton Downey Jr. Show, without the swearing or smoking.

McGraw’s appearance is similar to what Geraldo Rivera did in the late 1980s with his live syndicated specials, no doubt spurred by the huge success of 1986’s The Secrets of Al Capone’s Vaults, which was live from Chicago. But unlike Rivera, who spent part of his career as an experienced journalist, McGraw is nothing of the sort. Given McGraw is a Trump supporter and wants to help this country get “back on track”, this was nothing more than a made-for-TV spectacle for his barely-watched network and not only makes a mockery out of journalism but also the immigration crisis and was nothing more than an over-glorified episode of Cops or Live PD.

McGraw’s stunt no doubt raised awareness of Merit Street—people who had never heard of the channel before Sunday now know what it is. However, the economics of television does not respond to stunts; and this won’t do anything for the network’s long-term prospects. If McGraw wants to know the current state of linear television, he should try channel surfing so he can find where The WB, UPN, and PAX are on the dial. Chances are, you soon won’t find Merit Street on the dial, either.