(Updated 7:08 PM PT with America First Legal Foundation statement) As the countdown to David Ellison and Skydance’s takeover of Paramount comes to a close, 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 granted a joint request from CBS Studios and former SEAL Team script coordinator Brian Beneker to dismiss the year-long lawsuit. Beneker, who is white, sued in February 2024, alleging he was denied a permanent job on the David Boreanaz-led series “due to his race, gender, and heterosexual orientation” and “unlawful policies” on diversity, equity, and inclusion measures.
Despite publicly announcing that SEAL Team would end at the end of 2024, Beneker is seeking $500,000 in lost wages and an “order requiring Defendants to provide Plaintiff with full-time employment as a producer.”
“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 Agreement to Dismiss with Prejudice. After considering the Parties’ Joint Agreement to Dismiss with Prejudice, the record and transcript of this action, and all other matters properly filed with the Court, and for good cause, IT IS HEREBY DECIDED that the Parties’ Joint Agreement to Dismiss with Prejudice is GRANTED. This entire action is dismissed with prejudice. Each party shall bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees,” reads the two-page order posted to the Central District of California court docket.
First revealed late last week in court, the settlement puts an end to the matter altogether, with both parties apparently paying their own bills.
While the details are confidential, it appears that there was a payment to freelance writer Beneker in the deal. I hear it wasn’t a huge one. There also doesn’t appear to be a reversal of CBS’s DEI policies as part of the deal, which was a separate component of the motivation for the move by Beneker, a conservative activist backed by the America First Legal Foundation, along with landing a full-time writing and production position on the now-shuttered military drama series.
“Paramount Global and CBS Studios have agreed to settle the lawsuit filed by America First Legal on behalf of our client Brian Beneker,” AFLF Senior Attorney Nick Barry told Deadline in a statement later on Monday. “America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly backtrack on their DEI claims and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are illegal. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.”
For that, in a Donald Trump 2.0 reality where some media companies and platforms have erased the inclusion measures they once boasted about or at least glossed over said policies, CBS Studios had no comment on the settlement or the case today when contacted by Deadline. Beneker’s lead attorney, San Diego-based John W. Howard, referred a request for comment to his fellow attorneys at AFLF. No one at the organization founded by top Trump aide Stephen Miller reached out to Deadline.
In many ways, regardless of the details of the settlement, it’s no surprise that CBS has reached out and walked away. Certainly, the fact that CBS lost a bidding war last August before Judge John F. Walter dismissed the case put pressure on the company even before Trump won the election and returned to office. More recently, when Shari Redstone wanted to sell the once-mighty media giant to the children of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr repeatedly followed his boss’s orders by going after Walter Cronkite’s former home.
Trump sued CBS for $20 billion over an interview with rival Kamala Harris that aired on 60 Minutes last fall. As rumors of a settlement in that case spread, the government last week went after the network.
