A fledgling media company launched by famed TV talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw canned about a third of its 100-person staff, according to a report.
Merit Street Media, founded by McGraw earlier this year, completed a culling Monday that included fewer than 40 people, mainly in the morning and evening news departments, sources familiar with the layoffs told Bloomberg.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based company rebooted McGraw’s daytime gabfest, “Dr. Phil Primetime” which airs on the Merit Street TV network.
“Following the brief summer hiatus of ‘Dr. Phil Primetime,’ Merit Street implemented ongoing consolidations of departments and roles in efforts to achieve efficiencies at the highest level, which unfortunately resulted in some layoffs,” the media company said in a statement.
Newer hires did not receive severance, sources told Bloomberg.
“These layoffs came as a complete shock to everyone on the staff,” one worker told Mediaite.
“Some people uprooted their entire lives to move here for this job without a safety net and now the rug has been pulled out from under them.”
McGraw, who gained prominence as a regular guest on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, ended his 21-year run on daytime TV early last year.
He announced his return to the airwaves with “Dr. Phil Primetime” last November on the newly branded network.
“I chose ‘Merit’ to honor the meritocracy upon which our amazing country was built, and ‘Street’ to represent ‘Main Street’ America,” McGraw said in February in a statement.
The network launched through a partnership with Trinity Broadcasting Network, a self-proclaimed Christian TV group that reaches 80 million homes, according to its website.
Like his original show – during which “Dr. Phil” spoke with rule-breaking teens, drug addicts and conspiracy theorists – McGraw tackles attention-grabbing topics on his new show.
In June, he interviewed former President Donald Trump.
