Al Roker and his production banner have been sued by Bill Schultz, a former executive producer on an animated kids TV series in development. Schultz (The Simpsons, King of The Hill, Garfield) claims he was fired for objecting to the company’s failure to follow a diversity initiative intended to bring minority writers onto PBS television productions.
The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, alleges executives at Al Roker Entertainment “callously disregarded” a diversity, equity and inclusion program, commonly called DEI, mandated by PBS, which covered the bulk of the production expenses for animated series Weather Hunters, by attempting to have Black writers touch up scripts written by white scribes to give the appearance of a diverse writers room.
In Hollywood, DEI is seen by some as especially significant in efforts to boost diversity, on and behind the screen. The programs, however, have attracted legal scrutiny by plaintiffs who say companies aren’t properly implementing the initiatives, and, more recently, by others who claim that they discriminate against nonpreferred groups, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s opinion knocking down affirmative action. In March, CBS Studios was sued for allegedly carrying diversity quotas that discriminate against straight white men. Some companies have turned away from explicitly naming racial groups in DEI, instead preferring to say “underrepresented groups.”
According to Tuesday’s complaint, Weather Hunters has a unique ownership structure in which the majority of the show’s production costs are covered by PBS, while Al Roker Entertainment retains complete ownership of the series. PBS provided 70 percent of the project’s financing for 40 half-hour episodes with the stipulation that it adhered to a DEI plan.