Ousted CBS Producer Trey Sherman Accuses Network of Race-Based Layoffs

(TikTok/Ted Shaffrey/AP photo)

A former CBS producer accused the network of race-based layoffs after the company laid off 1,000 employees in a first round of cuts.

Trey Sherman, an associate producer for CBS Evening News+ and for the network’s CBS Race & Culture Unit, took to TikTok on Wednesday to claim discrimination as part of the cuts. Fox News first flagged the video.

@treymous Is CBS is doing race-based layoffs? #cbsnews #layoffs ♬ original sound – Trey Sherman

Sherman is Black and both of his positions were eliminated in the new cuts, which came after Skydance and Paramount (parent company of CBS) had a merger approved this year.

“I just got laid off from my job at CBS, and every producer on my team who got laid off is a person of color,” Sherman said. “Every person who gets to stay and will be relocated within the company is a White person.”

Sherman claimed an unnamed executive “lied” to him by saying he tried to find a new role for him at the company.

“I went one by one to my White colleagues. ‘Are you getting laid off?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you getting laid off?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you getting laid off?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you getting laid off? No,'” he said. “So, I went back up to his office, and I told him I think he lied to my face.”

CBS CEO David Ellison announced the layoffs in an email to staff this week.

“Today we begin the difficult process of informing impacted team members across the company,” he wrote. “These decisions are never made lightly, especially given their effect on our colleagues who have made meaningful contributions to the company.”

Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be cut at a later date, according to the Los Angeles Times. CBS has not commented on Sherman’s claims.

“I don’t care if you decided to keep people who have purple color hair,” Sherman said. “You decided to keep people who you had worked with before with — don’t even know if that’s true — if the outcome of that decision is racist, the action was racist. That sh*t is f*cked.”

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