(Updated 7:08 PM PT with America First Legal Foundation statement) With the countdown on for David Ellison and Skydance’s takeover of Paramount, the behind-the-scenes battle over SEAL Team and the power of inclusion policies at CBS has come to an end.
A federal judge on Monday approved a joint request from CBS Studios and former SEAL Team script coordinator Brian Beneker to dismiss the year-old case. Beneker, who is white, sued in February 2024 claiming he wasn’t given a permanent gig on the David Boreanaz-led series “due to his race, sex, and heterosexuality” and the “illegal policy” of diversity, equity and inclusion measures.
Even though it had already been made public that SEAL Team was coming to an end late in 2024, Beneker was looking in his suit to score $500,000 in alleged lost wages, and “an injunction requiring Defendants to offer Plaintiff a full-time job as a producer.”
Watch on Deadline
Now U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang has offered the last word on SEAL Team, which saw its last episode air on Paramount+ on October 6 last year. “On April 18, 2025, Plaintiff Brian Beneker (“Plaintiff”) and Defendants CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Global (“Defendants” and together with Plaintiff, the “Parties”) filed a Joint Stipulation For Dismissal with Prejudice. Having considered the Parties’ Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice, the files and records of this action, and all other matters properly submitted to the Court, and good cause appearing therefor, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Parties’ Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice is GRANTED. This entire action is dismissed with prejudice. Each party shall bear their own attorneys’ fees and costs,” according to a two-page order posted on the Central District of California court docket.
First revealed late last week in court, the settlement ends the matter completely, with both sides seemingly picking up their respective tabs.
While details are confidential, it does seem there was some payout to freelance writer Beneker in the deal. That payment was not particularly large, I hear. It also seems that there were no rollbacks in CBS’ DEI policies as a part of the settlement, that being a distinct component of the thrust of the conservative activist America First Legal Foundation-backed Beneker’s action, along with snagging a full-time writing and producing slot on the now-shuttered military drama series.
“Paramount Global and CBS Studios have agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit America First Legal brought on behalf of our client Brian Beneker,” AFLF Senior Counsel Nick Barry told Deadline in a statement later Monday. “America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.”
To that, in a realpolitik Donald Trump 2.0 environment where several media companies and platforms have been stripping away inclusion measures they once bragged about, or at least whitewashed said policies, CBS Studios had no comment on the settlement or the case today when contacted by Deadline. Beneker’s main attorney John W. Howard of San Diego passed request for comment on to his co-counsel’s at the AFLF. No one from the organization founded by Trump top aide Stephen Miller reached out to Deadline.
In many ways, whatever the particulars of the settlement, it is no real surprise CBS made a deal and walked away. Certainly the fact that CBS lost its bid last August before Judge John F. Walter to have the case tossed put strain on the company even before Trump won the election and returned to office. More recently, as Shari Redstone aims to unload the once mighty media giant to the scion of Oracle boss Larry Ellison, Trump FCC chair Brendan Carr has been repeatedly doing his master’s bidding going after the onetime home of Walter Cronkite.
Trump has sued CBS for $20 billion over an interview with his rival Kamala Harris that aired on 60 Minutes last fall. As rumors of a settlement in that case swirl, the administration last week went after the network and the newsmagazine for segments about the reaction in Greenland to Trump’s desire to take over the North Atlantic island nation, and the mild criticism Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had for the White House in its April 13 show. The Paramount and Skydance deal requires federal regulatory approval from the Carr-run FCC to go forward. While there is little doubt the deal will get the nod, the Trump team is making everyone jump through hoops in the meantime.
