A former executive is alleging that Paramount fired him because of his race and age in a new lawsuit filed Friday.
According to the lawsuit, 58-year-old Joseph E. Jerome was one of three White men over the age of 50 who were fired from Paramount in 2024 and replaced by younger, more diverse workers. Jerome had worked for Paramount since 1994 and most recently served as production counsel for “Entertainment Tonight,” before being replaced by a Black employee decades younger than him, the suit alleges.
Jerome’s attorneys highlighted Paramount’s company-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, pointing out that all attorneys fired in 2024 were White and over 50.
The lawsuit also described a 2023 meeting Jerome had with then-CBS News President Wendy McMahon, who allegedly expressed concerns about the older demographics of the shows produced by her divisions and pushed staff to work on “attracting younger viewers.”
“Shortly after this meeting, Johnson repeatedly criticized [Jerome] for thinking ‘old’ when discussing a prospective deal after [Jerome] flagged that a legal term of art was being misused,” the lawsuit reads.
Jerome alleges that he was discriminated against based on his race and age in violation of federal and state law and is seeking statutory and punitive damages.
Paramount declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the lawsuit.
This lawsuit comes after Paramount and CBS quietly settled another lawsuit in April alleging racial discrimination against straight, White male employees. That lawsuit involved former “SEAL Team” script coordinator and writer Brian Beneker, who claimed he was denied career advancement because he did not “check any diversity boxes.”
Beneker’s lawsuit also cited past comments from then-CBS CEO George Cheeks in 2020, announcing efforts to ensure 40% of all writers’ rooms had “BIPOC representation” for the 2021-22 season, with the goal of increasing this figure to 50% for the 2022-23 season.
In February, Paramount Global leadership informed employees that the company would be rolling back DEI initiatives in response to President Donald Trump’s re-election and anti-DEI policies. This rollback included no longer using “aspirational numerical goals” for hiring and ending the policy of collecting race, ethnicity, sex, or gender data of potential applicants—except when legally required.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/05/media/ex-paramount-exec-sues-company-claims-he-was-fired-for-being-old-and-white/
