Former America’s Got Talent judge Gabrielle Union filed a discrimination complaint on Thursday against judge and creator Simon Cowell, production companies Fremantle Productions North America and Syco Entertainment, and Universal Television. The action comes more than six months after Union left the popular talent competition series following a one-season stint as judge, amid claims the work environment there was “toxic.”
“Union, an African American woman, was a judge on America’s Got Talent, but, in what has become a widely publicized matter, was terminated from the Cowell-created show after just one season,” reads the opening of the claim, which was posted by Deadline. “Sadly, what led to Union’s termination was her refusal to remain silent in the face of a toxic culture at AGT that included racist jokes, racist performances, sexual orientation discrimination, and excessive focus on female judges’ appearances, including race-related comments.”
The legal filing goes on to cite numerous alleged incidents that have been previously reported, including that Cowell smoked indoors despite a California law that bans smoking in the workplace—which Union previously told Variety left her “sick for two months straight.”
Also cited are what Union described as racist comments made by judge Howie Mandel and guest judge Jay Leno. Per the claim: “Mandell [sic] mocked a Spanish-singing performer from Arizona by stating that, in sum and substance, America would not be able to ‘understand’ her singing. Union complained about Mandell’s [sic] racist comment to NBC’s Vice President of Talent Relations and shared her concern that Mandell’s comments essentially conveyed a message to 41 million United States Spanish-speaking residents that unless you speak English you cannot be successful on the show and that there is no room for contestants that do not speak or perform in English.”
Of Leno, the claim adds, “During a now-infamous segment that Jay Leno filmed in the presence of Union and the AGT Judges, Leno made a joke about a painting of Cowell surrounded by his dogs, stating that Cowell’s dogs ‘looked like something one would find on the menu at a Korean restaurant.’ Union complained to the producers on AGT that Leno’s joke was racist and urged them to report Leno’s joke to human resources at NBC.”
Previously, neither Mandel nor Leno had commented on Union’s allegations. In a statement to Variety last month, a representative for Cowell said that when the judge “was directly informed of the smoking complaint during the first couple of days of the season, he immediately changed his behavior and the issue was never raised again.” A representative for Cowell and his company, Syco, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The claim also alleges Union was criticized for her hair being “too wild,” an “unsolicited opinion” that was not production-based and later interpreted to mean Union’s hair was “too black.”
In the wake of Union’s ouster, NBC, Fremantle, and Syco announced an investigation into the show’s workplace environment. Last month, in a statement, the companies revealed the investigation’s conclusions: “Through the investigation process, it has been revealed that no one associated with the show made any insensitive or derogatory remarks about Ms. Union’s appearance, and that neither race nor gender was a contributing factor in the advancement or elimination of contestants at any time. The investigation has shown that the concerns raised by Ms. Union had no bearing on the decision not to exercise the option on her contract.”
But the discrimination claim filed Thursday alleges that NBC made changes to the findings of the investigation before presenting it to Union on March 4. “At the outset of this meeting, the investigator revealed that she had previously disclosed the preliminary result of her ‘investigation’ to NBC several weeks earlier outside of the presence of Union. The investigator, who was hired by NBC and Fremantle, acknowledged, among other things, that she had already made changes to her preliminary findings at the direction of NBC and Fremantle. The investigator also cautioned that her findings should not be construed to suggest that a proper ‘investigation’ was performed.”