What to Know
Dr. Phil‘s son, Jordan McGraw, is in hot water with the city of New York after he refused to comply with the terms of the agreement he made for his new behind-the-scenes cop show, Behind the Badge. Apparently, Jordan was granted special access to the NYPD in exchange for the city being able to veto footage that they didn’t want to make public, and now that’s he’s not following through, NYC is taking legal action against him.
Jordan and his production company were able to film with the NYPD behind-the-scenes.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jordan and his production company, McGraw Media, signed an agreement with former NYC mayor Eric Adams that gave their team access to NYPD operations in exchange for allowing the city to view the episodes ahead of time and would have the right to request that certain footage wouldn’t be aired.
But after they were given the first batch of rough cut episodes in December, the production company refused to remove the footage that the city flagged, and it sounds like the situation only spiraled from there.
The lawsuit claims that the footage could be harmful to witnesses, victims, and officers featured in the series.
The complaint that was filed by NYC’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, states that the footage is “extremely problematic” because it exposes the faces of officers and civilians, including officers who were going undercover at the time, and also include discussion of confidential police operations that were never intended to be made public.
“Any of this footage airing threatens to interfere with law enforcement investigations, judicial proceedings, deprive numerous arrestees’ rights to a fair trial, and cause significant harm to the city and the department as it would undoubtedly tarnish their reputation and goodwill,” the complaint said, via THR.
The city is suing for breach of contract and copyright infringement.
It sounds like Jordan’s show may never see the light of day.
Even though Jordan (and his production company) seem to be planning on going forth with the footage that they’ve been asked not to use, it sounds like there still may be a struggle to find a home for Behind the Badge. They’re still trying to shop it around to buyers, but the lawsuit did note that Jordan could potentially release it himself if he chose to.
So far, Jordan hasn’t spoken up about what his plans to tackle the situation are, but it sounds like it could be messy.
