A CBS employee filed a lawsuit against CBS Studios and its parent company, Paramount, alleging discrimination based on his race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Brian Beneker, a script coordinator for CBS’s hit show “SEAL Team,” is claiming that he was denied a staff writer position on multiple occasions due to what he perceives as the company’s discriminatory hiring policies. The lawsuit alleges that CBS employs an “illegal policy of race and sex balancing,” which prioritizes candidates from minority and LGBTQ+ groups over equally or more qualified individuals who do not belong to these categories.
According to Beneker’s account, despite his tenure on “SEAL Team” since 2017, he was repeatedly overlooked for staff writer positions in favor of candidates with less experience and fewer qualifications who were members of various “diverse” groups. Beneker specifically claims that he was overlooked because he is a straight, white male. He cites instances where writer’s assistants, lacking any writing credits, were promoted to staff writers solely based on their demographic characteristics.
“During Season 6, (in approximately May of 2022), two female writer’s assistants, without any writing credits, were hired as staff writers,” the lawsuit explains. “The first of these two hires was black. The second identified as lesbian.”
Beneker further contends that CBS’s initiatives have created a biased hiring environment where heterosexual, white men are held to higher standards compared to their non-white, LGBTQ+, or female counterparts. He highlights statements purportedly made by CBS Entertainment Group CEO George Cheeks, mandating that at least 40% of writers’ rooms must consist of certain minority groups.
The legal group representing Beneker, the America First Legal Foundation, is the same group that recently filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company for its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, alleging similar discriminatory practices. The lawsuit came amid public revelation that Disney has hiring quotas aimed at giving preference to candidates who are members of an “unrepresented group.”
