CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global, have agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit that exposed the troubling consequences of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, which were found to punish straight white males. The lawsuit, which highlighted how these policies systematically sidelined certain groups in favor of others, serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked identity politics in the workplace.
This week, CBS reached a confidential agreement in a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a former script coordinator on the network’s drama SEAL Team, Brian Beneker. He alleged he was repeatedly passed over for promotions because he is a white, heterosexual male. The 2024 lawsuit accused CBS and Paramount Global of violating federal civil rights laws by implementing hiring practices that prioritized race, gender, and sexual orientation over merit.
Representing Beneker, America First Legal (AFL) announced that both parties had settled what AFL senior counsel Nick Barry described as satisfactory actions by Paramount to publicly distance itself from its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. According to the lawsuit, Beneker claimed the show told him that he didn’t "check any diversity boxes," a comment linked to CBS’s publicly declared diversity goals.
“Paramount Global and CBS Studios have agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit America First Legal brought on behalf of our client Brian Beneker,” Nick Barry, America First Legal Senior Counsel, said in a statement. “America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.”
In 2020, then-CEO George Cheeks said that 40 percent of all writers’ rooms on the network’s primetime series would be staffed with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) writers by the 2021-2022 season. He said his goal was to have “half of all writers” be nonwhite by the 2022-2023 season.
After President Donald Trump took office, Paramount Global announced to employees that it would be scaling back its DEI initiatives. This included discontinuing "aspirational numerical goals" for hiring and ending the practice of collecting race, ethnicity, sex, or gender data from job applicants, unless legally mandated.