CBS Sued by ‘Entertainment Tonight’ Exec for Anti-White Discrimination as Complaints Mount Over Past, Aggressive DEI Quotas

CBS and its parent company, Paramount, are facing another lawsuit from a former ‘Entertainment Tonight’ employee alleging anti-white racial discrimination, as similar complaints are piling up, threatening to cost millions, while executives are seeking to slash costs. Paramount and its various divisions implemented some of the most aggressive diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in corporate America in the wake of the “racial reckoning” in 2020. CBS, which is owned by Paramount, set a 50 percent quota for “BIPOC representation” in writers’ rooms for the 2022-2023 season. The executive who spearheaded those efforts, George Cheeks, touted the initiatives at the time, saying that they would “accelerate efforts to broaden our storytelling and make CBS programming even more diverse and inclusive.”But five years later, many corporations that trumpeted their commitment to support black people with financial grants, quotas, or other reparatory methods are quietly rolling back these initiatives, either from convenience or, in the case of some high-profile media companies, under pressure from President Trump.Paramount’s shift from its aggressive DEI policies came as it was acquired by Skydance – a transaction that required government approval. Ahead of the merger, Skydance’s general counsel and co-president of business operations, Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, told the Federal Communications Commission, which had to approve the acquisition, that executives would eliminate diversity policies. Amid the commitment to stamp out DEI policies across Paramount, fired white employees are filing lawsuits alleging that they were axed due to the company’s diversity initiatives and publicly stated quotas.In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday, a white former Paramount executive, Joseph Jerome, says he was subjected to age and race discrimination due to the company’s “DEI goals” when he was fired last year.Mr. Jerome, who worked at Paramount for 30 years, was working as a senior vice president of business and legal affairs and production counsel for “Entertainment Tonight,” the venerable syndicated program owned by CBS.His complaint alleges that he was one of three white CBS Media Ventures employees over the age of 50 who were fired and replaced by younger employees of color. It also states that the termination notice came from the executive vice president of business and legal affairs at CBS Media Ventures, Nicole Harris Johnson, who was in charge of CBS Legal’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee.Mr. Jerome’s lawsuit states, “Despite his qualifications and extensive experience, Plaintiff was terminated by Paramount in August 2024 under the false pretext of a reduction in force.”“In fact, Plaintiff and others were terminated and replaced with less experienced, younger employees and/or employees of other races,” it adds. Mr. Jerome says that in November 2023, he was called into a meeting with the then-president of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, who allegedly voiced discontent with the older audience and said she wanted staff to focus on bringing in younger viewers. The lawsuit says he was replaced by a 25-year-old black law school graduate, Katelyn Segrest. It also says that two other white employees, David Andriole and Edith Walters, were replaced by Asian employees. Paramount declined to comment. Ms. McMahon resigned under pressure this spring from CBS amid various bias and antisemitism scandals consuming CBS News, which she oversaw, in the run-up to the Paramount acquisition.Mr. Jerome’s lawsuit is the latest complaint against Paramount and CBS over their DEI policies. In April, CBS settled a major lawsuit brought by a writer for the now-canceled “SEAL Team” who argued he was denied a permanent job because he was a straight white male. His lawsuit was supported by America First Legal, a group founded by one of President Trump’s advisors, Stephen Miller. That settlement was made while the FCC was reviewing Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount. The chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, said that his agency could block mergers due to companies’ diversity initiatives. In July 2024, a former anchor at the CBS-owned Los Angeles local station, KCAL, Jeff Vaughn, sued, alleging he was “fired because he is an older, white, heterosexual, male.” That case is still pending. And in August 2025, after the FCC approved Skydance’s purchase of Paramount – signaling a dramatic rollback of diversity initiatives – a local news anchor at Boston’s WBZ-TV, Katherine Merrill, sued WBZ, CBS, and Paramount, alleging that she was wrongfully accused of “microaggressions” and “implicit bias,” and discriminated against because she is white.Ms. Merrill alleges that WBZ-TV adopted aggressive diversity policies at the direction of CBS and “exploited such policies and took career-ending action” against her to “advance a DEI agenda.”WBZ replaced Ms. Merrill with a longtime evening anchor, Paula Ebben, who is white.The mounting legal problems for CBS and Paramount come as executives are seeking to slash up to $2 billion in costs across the company. Last week, Paramount laid off 1,000 employees, including 100 at CBS News. In a sign of how aggressively CBS is now rolling back its previously aggressive diversity policies, as part of the lay-offs, CBS gutted its “race and culture” unit that was created during the “racial reckoning” five years ago to screen and pass judgment on CBS News content. A black producer for a digital news show that was also canceled made a social media video claiming that layoffs were race-based and targeted people of color.

CBS Sued by ‘Entertainment Tonight’ Exec for Anti-White Discrimination as Complaints Mount Over Past, Aggressive DEI Quotas

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