Mo’Nique has filed a lawsuit alleging that Paramount and CBS owe her millions in profit participation from her show “The Parkers.”
The show ran for five seasons on UPN, from 1999 through 2004. The show’s creators — Ralph Farquhar, Sara Finney-Johnson and Vida Spears — filed a similar lawsuit last June, alleging that CBS had engaged in various forms of “financial malfeasance” to artificially inflate expenses and suppress profit payments. The network settled that case out of court in November.
Mo’Nique, whose legal name is Monique Hicks, filed her own suit on Wednesday, repeating many of the claims in the show creators’ lawsuit.
The suit notes that the production company, Big Ticket Productions, and UPN were both owned by Viacom, and alleges that UPN was allowed to pay a below-market fee to distribute the show. The suit also suggests that the show was packaged for cable distribution at below-market rates, further depressing its profitability.
In 2019, Mo’Nique filed a discrimination suit against Netflix, alleging that the streamer broke the law when it offered her just $500,000 for a comedy special. That case was settled last June, and her special, “My Name Is Mo’Nique,” began streaming on Netflix last week.
“Mo’Nique is not shy about taking on these David vs. Goliath battles in Hollywood to challenge these questionable practices that are endemic to the industry,” her attorney, David deRubertis, said in a statement.
“The Parkers” was a spinoff of another popular UPN show, “Moesha.” “The Parkers” has been streaming in its entirety on Netflix since October 2020.
The suit states that Mo’Nique, the star of the show, was supposed to receive 2.5% of adjusted gross receipts.
“While the Series has proven to be a major financial success for its producers and distributors, the series’ talent have not been permitted to share in the fruits of that success,” the suit alleges.
