Two former employees from Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have filed a discrimination complaint. Former Sony Pictures Entertainment employees shared how they were given comparatively fewer opportunities at their workplace.
USA TODAY obtained the civil rights complaints filed by Shelley Ballance Ellis, 60, and Monique Diaz, 48, who shared various details. They have worked for more than 20 years at their jobs and now share their stories and everything they went through at their workplace. It happened after Shelley and Monique were laid off earlier in April.
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As Ballance Ellis stated in the complaint,
"The truth is that I and others were targeted by Sony because we opposed discrimination."
According to Sony, new teams are working now at both the game shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, and they are,
"Dedicated to fostering a culture of inclusivity and respect."
A discrimination complaint against Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune: Details explored
After several employees were laid off by Sony in April 2024, two of them have come forward and filed a discrimination complaint against Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. They include Shelley Ballance Ellis, a 60-year-old former employee who has worked for 26 years. As Ellis shared, she was assigned additional responsibilities but was not given relevant promotions.
The second employee was Monique Diaz, 48, who has worked for 23 years. As she shared, she was paid "substantially less" compared to newly recruited colleagues who were "white."
Against the discrimination claims and the complaint filed by both Shelley and Monique, Sony shared a statement which states,
"Sony Pictures Entertainment takes all allegations of discrimination very seriously. Earlier this year there was a broad reorganization of our game show group that resulted in the elimination of several roles to address redundancies and evolving business needs of a 40-plus-year-old operation. Those eliminations were business efficiency decisions and not retaliatory."
According to their attorneys Peter Romer-Friedman and Hillary Benham-Baker, Sony has violated the civil rights laws. As the latter shared with his USA TODAY,
"What happened to Shelley and her colleagues behind the closed doors of production should not happen, and it was unlawful under our civil rights laws."
As fans might already know, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are amongst the most popular and widely followed game shows. Additionally, both are associated with Sony Entertainment.
In the complaint that has been filed, Ellis shared that there have been various "insensitive" jokes related to Black contestants as well.
One such incident occurred in 2020 during one of the production meetings. One of the Black employees heard another colleague sharing something about a fellow Black female employee.
There was a mention of that female employee's locs hairstyle that reminded the said employee of the movie The Elephant Man. Later, it was said that the crew members were "just joking." Ellis has asked about the "funny" part of her complaint.
Further, she shared,
"I mean to think that people are moving out of a neighborhood because Black people move in. That is not Black history of anything. After that happened, people I knew were offended, and in my opinion, rightfully so. I was embarrassed to work somewhere where that happened."
Further in the complaint, Ellis mentioned,
"I explained that I believe I had faced a glass ceiling at Sony as a Black woman, pushing back on my colleagues' claim that having white women in leadership meant there was no glass ceiling for people of color or Black women like me."
In response, the show's supervising producer shared that Shelley didn't receive the promotion because she is "incredibly valuable" in her current position.
Fans can stream Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune On weekdays via their regional network channels.
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