Ex-Paramount exec sues company, claims he was fired for being ‘old’ and White

A former executive is alleging 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 fired from Paramount in 2024 and replaced by younger, more diverse workers. Jerome had worked for Paramount since 1994 and most recently worked as production counsel for “Entertainment Tonight,” before being replaced with a Black employee decades younger than him, the suit alleges.

Jerome’s attorneys cited Paramount’s company-wide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, pointing out that all attorneys fired in 2024 were White and over 50.

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Joseph E. Jerome is claiming that Paramount fired him based on his age and race. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The lawsuit also described a 2023 meeting Jerome had with then-CBS News President Wendy McMahon, who “allegedly complained about the older demographics of the shows that her divisions produced” 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 read.

Jerome alleged 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.

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Paramount had previously settled another lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. (Fox News Digital)

Paramount declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed after Paramount and CBS quietly settled another lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against straight, White male employees in April. That lawsuit alleged that former “SEAL Team” script coordinator and writer Brian Beneker was denied career advancement because he did not “check any diversity boxes.”

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Beneker’s lawsuit also cited past comments from then-CBS CEO George Cheeks in 2020 announcing efforts to ensure 40% of all writers’ rooms have “BIPOC representation” for the 2021-22 season, with the goal of increasing the figure to 50% for the 2022-23 season.

Paramount began rolling back its DEI initiatives earlier this year. (Getty Images)

In February, Paramount Global heads informed employees that it would be rolling back DEI initiatives in the wake of President Donald Trump’s re-election and anti-DEI policies.

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This rollback included no longer using “aspirational numerical goals” for hiring and ending its policy of collecting race, ethnicity, sex or gender data of potential applicants except when legally required.