Jay & Phil McGraw Set Up First Unscripted Projects Through New Company With Jay Bienstock & Eugene Young
Several months after they launched a reality production company together, Jay McGraw, Dr. Phil McGraw, Jay Bienstock and Eugene Young have set up several projects. “My father and I decided that we wanted to make a real effort to get in the broadcast space,” said Jay McGraw, executive producer with Phil McGraw of daytime syndicated talk show The Doctors, a spinoff of Phil McGraw’s Dr. Phil. The two teamed with veteran unscripted producers Bienstock and Young to form Ghost Mountain Prods. The idea behind the company is to “take things that work well in the daytime space but we think would work better in primetime and move those concepts to primetime,” Jay McGraw said.
The first project from Ghost Mountain Prods. to hit the air is Cracking Addiction, a special for TLC, which premieres tomorrow night. It stems from an episode of Dr. Phil featuring the first live TV intervention on then-drug addict Brandon Knauss. Now Brandon and his mother Debbie are a mother-son intervention team helping others perform interventions on drug addicts, and their efforts will be showcased in the TLC special.
Ghost Mountain Prods. has sold another reality project stemming from Phil and Jay McGraw’s daytime shows to ABC Family. The cable network has committed to a presentation for Gross Anatomy. It is based on the popular feature from The Doctors designed to help teens with what they consider embarrassing medical conditions. Ghost Mountain also is working on three reality pilots at A&E.
In addition to Jay McGraw, Phil McGraw, Bienstock and Young, helping to shepherd Ghost Mountain’s slate is Dr. Phil and The Doctors executive producer Carla Pennington.
Bienstock has produced a number of high-profile reality series, including CBS’ Survivor and NBC’s The Apprentice. Young was Chief Creative Officer of Fremantle North America and Endemol USA. The two launched a company together, Bienstock Young media, last year.
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