CBS filed a motion to dismiss John Lowe's lawsuit in the John Lowe CBS legal dispute. The network said his harassment claims are fabrications and outright lies.
John Lowe filed the suit in L.A. Superior Court in June, saying showrunner Jennie Urman Snyder and producers allowed sexually explicit and discriminatory conduct to fester on Matlock. CBS said the latest filing is tied to a decision not to reengage him as a writer.
John Lowe and CBS Studios
CBS's legal team said the allegations that Lowe was unlawfully terminated as a writer on Matlock implicate California's anti-SLAPP statute. In the motion, the team said the choice not to bring him back was a creative decision made in furtherance of free speech on a matter of public interest.
The filing also said CBS hired Lowe on the Kathy Bates-starrer in October 2023 and that he departed in July 2024, not July 2025. That timeline matters because the company is tying the dispute to when his work ended and to the way it characterizes the nonrenewal.
Jennie Urman Snyder and the claims
Lowe's suit says Snyder referred to Juneteenth with a racial slur and that another producer made a sexually suggestive late-night call to him. CBS said Snyder never used the claimed slur and that no one witnessed it.
CBS Studios said the accusations are demonstrably inaccurate and maliciously fabricated after a thorough investigation. It also said Lowe was never subjected to race or sex harassment, and called false allegations deeply damaging to those wrongly accused and to anyone with a serious and legitimate claim of discrimination.
The court now has the motion to dismiss, and the next step is whether the Superior Court accepts CBS's anti-SLAPP argument and throws out the case before trial.
