The Big Al Roker Lawsuit, Explained

Al Roker, along with his production banner, has been sued by Bill Schultz, a former executive producer on an upcoming animated kids TV series in development. Schultz (who has credits on The Simpsons, King of The Hill, and Garfield, among other shows) claims that he was fired because he objected to the company’s failure to follow a diversity initiative aimed at bringing minority writers into PBS television productions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit, which was filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, are that Al Roker Entertainment executives “callously disregarded” a diversity, equity, and inclusion program, commonly referred to as DEI, mandated by PBS. In order to give the appearance of a diverse writers room, Black writers were asked to touch up scripts written by white writers to give the appearance of a diverse writers room for the animated series Weather Hunters.

As part of his role, Schultz was responsible for creating the program’s creative and business elements, including the financial model, episodic budgets, and all of the animated series work necessary for the development and production of such a high-quality show.

According to Tuesday’s complaint, despite Al Roker Entertainment retaining complete ownership of Weather Hunters, PBS covered most of the show’s production costs. PBS provided 70 percent of the financing for 40 half-hour episodes, subject to the project adhering to a DEI plan.

The lawsuit says that since Weather Hunters’ primary demographic was Black families, PBS’ efforts to boost diversity were especially crucial. Schultz claims that the DEI Policy was treated “as discretionary and an obstacle to be circumvented” by Al Roker Entertainment executives who had been given “total authority” to manage the series by Roker.

In an August 2023 meeting, Schultz was served with a breach of contract notice for failing to meet the show’s staffing requirements, among other things, after the show’s story editor said he “could not meet the production schedule if BIPOC writers were used to write the stories” and that “he would need to hire experienced non-BIPOC writers,” the lawsuit claims.

“Instead of giving the chances to BIPOC writers as had been the plan, the story editor, repeating a strategy previously advocated and backed by Al Roker Entertainment management in writing, wanted to have ‘non-BIPOC’ writers write the stories, and then bring on a ‘BIPOC’ writer and after the stories/episodes [were] shaped, they could be ‘hand[ed] off to BIPOC writers,’” states the complaint.

The lawsuit claims that a Black producer critical of DEI implementation was reprimanded one month after the meeting. Schultz was suspended and terminated during the same period. He blames management at Al Roker Entertainment for not accepting DEI as a requirement but instead as a “box to be checked in the most expedient manner possible” and an “impediment to business as usual.”

A former executive from Cartoon Network and Marvel Studios who has been working on the show since 2014, Schultz claims he informed Roker that his production banner did not properly comply with PBS’ DEI policy. Still, he did not reprimand allegedly problematic executives for doing so.

“I put nine years of my career into Weather Hunters, a project I strongly believe in, with the goal of making a wonderfully crafted show for children to enjoy and learn from,” Schultz said in a statement. “I also believed, and still believe, that the project benefited by creating opportunities for the ‘new voices’ crucial in storytelling and that the Weather Hunters production needed to live up to the ideals it was supposed to represent.”

As per the complaint, claims are brought for violations of New York’s human rights law, which prohibits discrimination based on race, as well as for breach of contract and negligence, among other allegations. Roker and Al Roker Entertainment have not commented publicly on the lawsuit.