'Jeopardy', 'Wheel of Fortune' under fire: Game shows hit with race discrimination claims

Executives at “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” discriminated against people of color then fired them for raising concerns about a toxic work environment where staffers made disparaging remarks about Black contestants, two former employees allege in civil rights complaints obtained by USA TODAY.

The two former Sony Pictures Entertainment workers said they were consistently given fewer opportunities than their white colleagues and were routinely subjected to racially insensitive behavior, including crew members mocking a Black contestant’s natural hairstyle.

Shelley Ballance Ellis, 60, said she was the highest-ranking Black production executive on the popular game shows. During her 26-year tenure, she said she was loaded down with extra responsibilities but passed over for promotions.

Monique Diaz, 48, who is Latina and worked on the shows for 23 years, said she was paid substantially less than a newly hired white colleague.

In April, Ballance Ellis and Diaz were laid off in what the company said was a corporate reorganization.

“The truth is that I and others were targeted by Sony because we opposed discrimination,” Ballance Ellis alleged in her complaint.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Sony said the new leadership team at "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" are "dedicated to fostering a culture of inclusivity and respect."

"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," the statement said.

'Take an open, honest look'

Attorneys Peter Romer-Friedman and Hillary Benham-Baker, who represent Ballance Ellis and Diaz, said Sony violated California civil rights laws.

Complaints filed with the California Civil Rights Department are investigated by the agency, which can sue the company, dismiss the charges or grant workers the right to pursue their own lawsuit.

“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,” Benham-Baker told USA TODAY.

The allegations against “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” come amid rising tensions over persistent opportunity gaps for talent from diverse backgrounds in the entertainment industry.

When George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in May 2020, major studios and networks joined in calls for equality, pledging solidarity and millions of dollars. But those commitments have since faded.

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Ballance Ellis said marginalized people are often overlooked and undervalued in mainstream Hollywood, where mostly white power brokers decide who gets the job or promotion or what stories are told on screen.

Ballance Ellis’ family has deep roots in the entertainment business – her grandfather was an actor and her father a studio executive and her grandparents owned the historic Ebony Showcase Theater in Los Angeles – so she said she felt a responsibility to “use her voice for good” in an industry where few people of color without connections dare speak out.

“I hope that this will be an opportunity for any entertainment executive to look at themselves and really, take an open, honest look,” she told USA TODAY.

Complaint alleges racially insensitive jokes, halted career ambitions

“Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” are mainstays of American television and major financial contributors to the Sony entertainment ecosystem.

Ballance Ellis led the clearance and licensing department, which obtains legal rights to video clips, artwork, music and other intellectual property featured on the shows, where she said she had a “front-row seat” to racial bias and insensitivity.

In her complaint, Ballance Ellis says the company tolerated racially insensitive jokes about Black contestants.

During a “Wheel of Fortune” production meeting in 2020, a Black employee said he overheard colleagues saying a Black woman’s locs hairstyle reminded them of the movie “The Elephant Man,” about a man grotesquely disfigured by a congenital disorder who makes his living as a sideshow attraction in Victorian England.

When the show’s director responded that he and the crew members were just joking, Ballance Ellis said in her complaint that she commented: “Which part is funny?”

Ballance Ellis said she also raised concerns about biased “Jeopardy!” clues and advocated for “more inclusive, nuanced clues about people from diverse backgrounds.”

For example, in 1999 in the "Black History" category, the clue was: "The black population of these U.S. areas, the destination of 'white flight,' doubled in the '70s and '80s." The answer was "the suburbs."

"I mean to think that people are moving out of a neighborhood because Black people move in. That is not Black history of anything," she said. "After that happened, people I knew were offended and in my opinion, rightfully so. I was embarrassed to work somewhere where that happened."

Other actions had a traumatic effect on employees, according to Ballance Ellis.

In 2017, “Wheel of Fortune” issued an apology after an episode for the show’s “Southern Charm Week” showed hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White in front of a plantation and two slave reenactors in antebellum dress.

But last year, a Black employee was told to create a shot list – a document detailing each shot in a particular scene – of plantation footage the producers were considering for Sajak’s retirement sendoff, according to Ballance Ellis. Objections from staff members were ignored, she said.

Ballance Ellis said her own experiences with discrimination at “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” were painful episodes in a job she otherwise loved.

Even when she was assigned additional responsibilities when three producers left the company, she said she was not considered for promotions.

In 2021, after a lengthy search, executive producer Mike Richards was named permanent host, replacing Alex Trebek who died in 2020. But Richards was forced to step down over offensive remarks he made on an earlier podcast and his involvement in past employment discrimination lawsuits while executive producing “The Price Is Right.”

Amid the public uproar, Ballance Ellis said Sony’s senior leadership mandated diversity and inclusion training.

During a gender-based training session in 2023, Ballance Ellis spoke up about her stunted career ambitions.

“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,” she said in her complaint.

Ballance Ellis said a supervising producer responded: “Shelley thinks she faced a glass ceiling, but that isn’t accurate. The reason that we didn’t promote Shelley is that Shelley is incredibly valuable in the position that she is in.”

Earlier this year, Ballance Ellis said she was forced out of the company and her duties were handed to a younger white woman.

“Sony simultaneously ‘reorganized’ the positions from my team of diverse employees (who are over 40 years old) and replaced them with mostly younger white employees,” she said in her complaint.

That included Diaz, who joined the clearance and licensing department in 2011.

Diaz told USA TODAY she enjoyed working with her supervisor, Ballance Ellis, and her team, but she grew increasingly troubled by how nonwhite contestants were treated versus white contestants, and how employees’ concerns about racial bias were disregarded.

In 2020, Diaz said she attended a meeting where a production supervisor mocked Black comedian Leslie Jones' request to bring her own hairstylist for her appearance as a celebrity contestant on “Wheel of Fortune.” For years, Black actors have complained they have to either do their own hair or sit through a stylist who does not know how to.

"The bad part is I learned early on that there were different roles for different people and it was disheartening,” Diaz said.

Another employee approached Diaz in 2023 to share that a supervising producer made about Black people’s skin “not aging as rapidly as white people’s skin.”

“I felt the environment was very discriminatory," she said.

Diaz said she learned that firsthand when she found out that she was earning about $50,000 a year less than a new white colleague doing the same work. She said she filed a complaint with human resources but got no response.

When Ballance Ellis advocated for an equity pay adjustment, Ballance Ellis said she was asked: “Does she know” she is being paid less? Ballance Ellis said she responded: “We know.”

The supervising producer refused to take action, so Ballance Ellis said she turned to Sony’s chief diversity officer.

Diaz said she got a pay bump but still earned $15,000 less per year than her colleague.

“We're talking about iconic American shows that are supposed to be inclusive and reflect the best of America,” Romer-Friedman said. “Until people like Shelley and Monique can remain and thrive at ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ those shows aren't going to represent the best of America.”

This story was updated to add new information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Jeopardy,' 'Wheel of Fortune' hit with race discrimination claims