Show Me the Money!! Mo'Nique Sues CBS, Paramount Over Missing Royalties from His Show "The Parkers"!

Actress, comedienne and producer Mo'Nique Hicks has a lot of things on her plate. She's had a new film drop with Lee Daniels, after their heavily publicized feud, a new Netflix special and. . . a new lawsuit?

That's right Mo' is suing the network for unpaid royalties and she'd got the contracts to prove it.

According to WRAL, the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by The Associated Press alleges the defendants artificially depressed the show's profitability to “retain millions that would otherwise be contractually due" to Mo’Nique’s production company.

“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 says.

The suit was filed by Hicks Media, the production company Mo'Nique owns with her husband and business partner, Sidney Hicks. It names as defendants CBS Studios, Paramount Pictures and the show's production company Big Ticket Productions. It seeks monetary damages to be determined at trial.

“The Parkers,” a spinoff of the sitcom “Moesha,” ran for five seasons and 110 episodes on the now-defunct network UPN, a forerunner of The CW, from 1999 to 2004. Mo'Nique starred as Nikki Parker, a mother who returns to the same college her daughter is attending.

The show has been rerun in syndication in various forms since, and has been available for streaming on Netflix since 2020. Mo'Nique previously filed a suit against Netflix for race and sex discrimination because they gave her a horribly low offer for a comedy special. That case was settled out of court last year and, the price must have been right because she dropped her new special last week.

Mo'Nique took to social media to give a statement about the lawsuit saying "Today we filed a lawsuit to make sure that we are fairly paid money that we are owed for “The Parkers”. Actors rely on the good faith of Hollywood companies to honor their profit participation agreements. The Parkers was a huge success and continues to be a source of revenue through syndication and streaming channels. To further make my point, the Executive Producers of “The Parkers” took legal action for the same concerns that I have, and they’ve already settled. Unfortunately, all too often, talent gets kept in the dark. We’re looking forward to shedding some light on the subject!"

Let's hope this works out for her as well.