A former executive producer for Al Roker’s production company is suing him for hiring all white script writers.
Bill Schultz executive produced Roker’s 2020 animated TV series about a Black family of meteorologists, titled “Weather Hunters.”
Schultz filed a lawsuit against Al Roker Entertainment and Roker himself for wrongfully terminating him.
Schultz, who is white, claims he was “wrongfully and illegally targeted” for termination in 2023 after calling out the company’s failed DEI policy.
According to a court document obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Schultz claims Roker “callously disregarded” a PBS DEI initiative.
The initiative mandated that Schultz’s animated series “Weather Hunters” include black script writers.
He said Roker undermined the mandate by bringing in black writers to “only touch up” scripts that white writers wrote.
“Instead of giving the chances to BIPOC writers as had been the plan, the story editor… wanted to have ‘non-BIPOC’ writers write the stories, and then bring on a ‘BIPOC’ writer,’” the lawsuit read.
“After a black producer was reprimanded for opposing this idea, Schultz spoke out in defense of the DEI policy and made his opinion known,” the suit said.
Later, Schultz received a “notice accusing him of what the suit described as ‘fabricated’ contractual breaches and was suspended and fired soon after.”
