Brian Beneker v. CBS Studios, Inc., et al.

Problem:

Brian Beneker is a white, heterosexual male script coordinator and freelance scriptwriter who has consistently written episodes for CBS’s “Seal Team” television series since 2017. He has been repeatedly denied a staff writer position with the show, while CBS hired and promoted individuals who lacked experience and screenwriting credits but were part of the favored hiring groups; that is, they were nonwhite, LGBTQ, or female. He witnessed CBS hire several staff writers without experience who met their DEI qualifications, despite telling Mr. Beneker that they could not hire him because the show had too many writers just months prior. Additionally, he had been informed by the showrunner that he did not check the right boxes for what the studio was looking for. Despite his success in writing for the series, he soon realized that he was ineligible for hiring in the writer’s room because of the illegal, discriminatory sex and race requirements enforced by CBS and Paramount.