The son of celebrity psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw has removed some controversial shots from a not-yet-published reality-style NYPD series, according to sources familiar with negotiations underway between the city and the producer.
The edits were made after the New York City Law Department sued 39-year-old producer Jordan McGraw in January to block the release of his project, titled “Behind the Badge,” claiming certain portions of episodes McGraw had produced would endanger the lives of police and witnesses.
Jordan McGraw and his camera crew were granted unusual behind-the-scenes access in 2025 to NYPD operations — specifically by then-Mayor Eric Adams — according to two sources familiar with the arrangement, as first reported by NBC New York in January. The sources said the deal was cut over the objections of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The son of TV celebrity Dr. Phil faces a lawsuit from the City of New York. The city wants a judge to block Jordan McGraw and his media company from distributing behind the scenes video they say puts police and the public at risk. NBC New York’s Melissa Russo reports.
After Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, his Law Department moved quickly into court to block the release of McGraw’s episodes, arguing some material included in rough cut episodes would damage the reputation of the NYPD and pose “an imminent threat to life and safety of active police officers.”
In its complaint, the city argued “faces, voices and names of undercover officers conducting operations in plainclothes” had not been obscured and that McGraw had “blatantly disregarded” a clause in their contract giving the city power to preview rough cuts of episodes and, within 10 days, veto any portions they deem “unusable” for confidentiality or public safety reasons.
But despite McGraw’s recent revisions, and productive settlement negotiations described by both sides in interviews and court filings, the city has not issued final approval for the nine-episode series, having reviewed just four episodes so far.
According to sources familiar with the NYPD’s ongoing review process, not all the material considered problematic by the city has been taken out.
“I don’t know what the city is going to say, but in our view, everything has been resolved,” McGraw’s lawyer Chip Babcock said in an interview with NBC New York before a court hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon.
The contract granting the unusual access to McGraw was signed by Mayor Adams’ City Hall Chief of Staff one day after the former mayor’s corruption charges were dismissed by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Jordan McGraw’s father, celebrity psychologist Dr. Phil, played a role in connecting then-Mayor Adams with the Trump administration, as he faced federal corruption charges.
Dr. Phil publicly took credit for introducing Mayor Adams to Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan.
“In addition to introducing you to Mayor Adams, I introduced you to some of the top cops in New York,” Dr. Phil told Homan in a Dec. 2024 interview on his TV network.
Jordan McGraw’s attorney Chip Babcock told NBC New York there was no connection between the former Mayor’s access to the Trump administration and his client’s access to shoot an NYPD series.
“There certainly isn’t any tie to the Trump administration,” Babcock said in an interview.
According to former NYPD chief of department and NBC New York consultant Terence Monahan, “To have a show go forward without the express approval of the Police Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information in the NYPD is extremely unusual.”
Access to the NYPD was not the only thing Mayor Adams was trying to grant McGraw. Several high ranking FDNY sources told NBC New York there was an aggressive push from City Hall to extend McGraw’s access to fire operations for a second series. The fire department sources say they successfully resisted, citing HIPAA laws protecting fire victims and EMS patients as one of several reasons not to participate.
As McGraw was obtaining lucrative access to video content from Eric Adams’s city hall, an LLC McGraw set up in 2025 was paid $500,000 by the Adams for mayor campaign, according to campaign filings.
In January, when the Adams campaign was asked who was behind the LLC, Fairfax Digital, they declined to say.
After Adams’s former campaign manager and McGraw’s attorney confirmed that Fairfax was indeed McGraw’s company, campaign attorney Vito Pitta texted NBC New York to say he would have no further comment on the topic.
In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote ahead of a planned hearing Friday, City Corporation Counsel Steven Banks indicated the city would ask the court to extend its TRO blocking the release of the disputed episodes until April 30. Without that order, Banks said, distribution of the episodes “would unjustifiably put the City, the NYPD, and civilians at risk, and irreparably harm the City’s good will and reputation.
Banks also wrote he was hopeful a draft settlement agreement could be finalized in quickly.
After the city sued McGraw in January, his attorney Babcock said he would make a First Amendment argument.
“It appears that the City is seeking to restrain publication on a matter of public concern forgetting perhaps that prior restraints are presumptively unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” Babcock told NBC New York in a January statement.
But that tone had shifted dramatically as Babcock headed into court Friday.
“The faces of civilians who might be witnesses will be blurred if the city wants that. There will be no discussion of sensitive police operations that the city is concerned about. And there’s not going to be any video of the NYPD officer inputting a security code to the back door entrance to a precinct station that the city raised,” said Babcock.
