Chris Harrison Sets TV Return on Dr. Phil’s Network, Will Host New Morning Show and Reality Dating Series
Chris Harrison, former host of “The Bachelor,” will return to television as the co-host of a morning show and the host and creator of a new reality dating series. He will also team up with Dr. Phil McGraw to contribute to “Dr. Phil Primetime.”
This is part of an overall deal Harrison signed with McGraw’s Merit Street Media, a new streaming and broadcast network created by McGraw. The network is set to launch on April 2.
More from Variety
The morning talk show, which is sharing a fall or winter debut, will be co-hosted by Harrison and his wife, Lauren Zima. It will be filmed at Merit Street Media’s studios, which are located in Dallas, Texas, where the couple resides.
Not many details have been revealed about the reality dating series Harrison will create and host, but Dr. Phil noted that it will be “so novel, so different,” adding, “It has dating elements in it, but this is so different and so novel. It is flipping the script in a way that I think people are gonna become addicted to it in a week. It is unbelievable.”
This marks Harrison’s return to the genre following 19 years as the face of Bachelor Nation. He had a controversial exit from the franchise in 2021 after he made racially insensitive comments while defending Season 25 winner Rachael Kirkconnell. At the time, Variety reported that he received approximately $9 million to walk away.
“Call it divine intervention, karma, kismet, whatever it is, the fact that Dr. Phil created this network in my own backyard here in Dallas, it means the world to me to, not only be returning to television, but to be doing it here in a hometown crowd,” Harrison told Entertainment Tonight of the new opportunity.
Harrison began working with Merit Street Media by contributing to “Dr. Phil Primetime,” where he did “some very penetrating field work having to do with some of these romance scams, these catfish type things.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
