In May, CBS employees received an email introducing a new plan for handling sexual harassment complaints. There would be a \u201cvery expanded and visible\u201d structure, the email said, with \u201chighly trained HR executives\u201d at every CBS program to \u201censure safety and build trust.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trust was an issue at CBS. In the last two years, the company\u2019s longtime chief executive, Leslie<\/a> Moonves<\/a>, and the anchor Charlie Rose<\/a> were fired after CBS determined that they had engaged in sexual misconduct. (Both men have denied the accusations.) Another case led to a $9.5 million payment by CBS to the actress Eliza Dushku<\/a>, who said she had been written off the show \u201cBull\u201d after she complained that its star, Michael Weatherly, had made her uncomfortable with his crude comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new process was put to the test soon after it was announced \u2014 and the results were ambiguous, at best, as CBS tried to get its bearings in a landscape reshaped by the #MeToo movement. In the end, no one involved came away happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In early September, Broti Gupta, a writer on \u201cCarol\u2019s Second Act,\u201d<\/a> a sitcom starring the Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton<\/a>, made a formal complaint against David Hunt, an executive producer on the show who is also Ms. Heaton\u2019s husband. Ms. Gupta, 25, accused Mr. Hunt, 65, of touching her inappropriately on two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she complained to human resources, Ms. Gupta said she did not think Mr. Hunt should be fired. Instead, she wanted him to go through sexual harassment training and see why he had made her uncomfortable. But after she made the complaint, she felt she was being penalized at work, she said in an interview. She quit the show in mid-September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Margee Magee, 43, a writer with the title of co-executive producer, resigned in October. She said she quit because she felt she had been stripped of responsibilities after talking to higher-ups about tensions arising from Ms. Gupta\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CBS Television Studios said in a statement that it had dealt with the complaints fairly, adding that Mr. Hunt had \u201ccooperated fully with the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with her husband, Ms. Heaton is an executive producer of \u201cCarol\u2019s Second Act,\u201d a sitcom that had its broadcast debut Sept. 26. She has been married to Mr. Hunt, a Juilliard-trained actor and producer from Britain, since 1990. \u201cEverybody Loves Raymond,\u201d a CBS hit from 1996 to 2005, made Ms. Heaton a household name. On the new show, taped before an audience on the CBS Studio Center lot in Los Angeles, she plays a former teacher who becomes a doctor in a late-in-life career shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Gupta, who published humor pieces at McSweeney\u2019s and The New Yorker while still in college, and later wrote for the ABC sitcom \u201cSpeechless\u201d and the Netflix show \u201cFriends From College,\u201d joined the writing staff in June. In early August, after a dinner for the cast and crew at Pizzeria Mozza, Ms. Gupta was standing with Mr. Hunt and others in the valet-parking area. She said she had not met him before that night. He hugged her twice from the side, Ms. Gupta said, before he complimented her pants and ran a hand up the side of her thigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Ms. Heaton and Mr. Hunt<\/a>, said in an email that his client \u201cdid not remember the details as described\u201d and that he \u201cdoes not recall rubbing anyone\u2019s thigh or leg and he disputes that characterization of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Gupta said the experience outside the restaurant made her uncomfortable. On her way home, she called her boyfriend, Greg Gallant, a television writer, and described what had happened. A friend, Dylan Gelula, an actress, later went to her apartment, and Ms. Gupta told her about the incident. (Mr. Gallant and Ms. Gelula confirmed the conversations they had that night with Ms. Gupta.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Gallant said he encouraged Ms. Gupta to complain to the showrunners. But the women had reservations. \u201cWe both kind of decided that it would be bad for her to do anything about it,\u201d Ms. Gelula said. \u201cAnd, clearly, we were correct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For several weeks, Ms. Gupta said, she told no one at \u201cCarol\u2019s Second Act\u201d about her accusation against Mr. Hunt. But then, she said, there was another instance of unwanted contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was seated on a high folding chair, the kind known as a director\u2019s chair, on the lot. Ms. Magee, the co-executive producer, was seated next to her as Mr. Hunt approached. He seemed to be looking for something, Ms. Gupta and Ms. Magee said, when he took Ms. Gupta by the shoulders and jerked her forward. Ms. Magee jumped out of her chair and said, \u201cExcuse me,\u201d she told The Times. Mr. Hunt said nothing and walked away, the two women said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n …Remembers looking for a script but does not remember the detail of touching anyone\u2019s shoulders, and if he did that, it was not intended to be offensive.<\/p>\nsaid Mr. Freedman, the lawyer of Mr. Hunt<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Ms. Gupta later told Ms. Magee that it was not the first time Mr. Hunt had touched her inappropriately, and she described what had happened outside the restaurant, the two women said. Ms. Magee urged Ms. Gupta to go to the showrunners, Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern, and was present when Ms. Gupta spoke with them. Ms. Magee considered the showrunners friends, having worked with them on other sitcoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the talk with Ms. Gupta, Ms. Haskins and Ms. Halpern reported what she had said to CBS Television Studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In early September, Ms. Gupta then met with Ellen Goldsmith, a human resources executive. During the discussion, Ms. Gupta emphasized that she did not want Mr. Hunt kicked off the show, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that same week, on a Friday, Ms. Gupta met again with Ms. Goldsmith. According to Ms. Gupta\u2019s account of the discussion, Ms. Goldsmith said CBS had started an investigation and had corroborated the chair incident; and while Mr. Hunt did not recall touching Ms. Gupta outside the restaurant, Ms. Goldsmith said she had no reason to doubt it. She then asked Ms. Gupta what she would like to happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI told them just my own personal code of ethics, which is that if there is space for education instead of punitive measures, then I believe in education,\u201d Ms. Gupta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following Monday, the showrunners told the writers that they would be barred from that day\u2019s rehearsal, because the previous run-throughs had gotten too chaotic. On Thursday, the day the show was taped, the writers were informed that they would no longer be allowed to run revised versions of failed jokes to the showrunners, as had been the usual practice. Instead, only the episode’s credited writer would be allowed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Gupta and Ms. Magee said they suspected that the changes in routine had come about as a way to keep them separated from Mr. Hunt. Other writers on the staff were \u201cconfused and a little anxious, thinking maybe they did something wrong,\u201d Ms. Gupta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Brettler, the lawyer for the showrunners, Ms. Haskins and Ms. Halpern, said the plan to change the rehearsal and taping process, which were meant to reduce chaos on the set, had come about shortly before Ms. Gupta\u2019s complaint. \u201cIt\u2019s really more of a coincidence than anything that it happened to be on the same day,\u201d the lawyer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And once the showrunners learned of the complaint, the lawyer said, they asked human resources if they could still go ahead with their planned changes. \u201cThey didn\u2019t do anything without running it up the flagpole with H.R.,\u201d Mr. Brettler said. CBS backed the showrunners, saying in a statement that they had decided to \u201cstreamline their production process\u201d before Ms. Gupta complained to them about Mr. Hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Magee said she confronted the showrunners after the taping and came away from the discussion believing that the changes had been made to keep Ms. Gupta and Mr. Hunt apart. Two other people who worked on the show, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said that they had the same impression from the showrunners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After speaking to the showrunners, Ms. Magee relayed the discussion to Ms. Gupta. For Ms. Gupta, it was the last straw. She said she felt that, while Mr. Hunt seemed largely unaffected, she was being prevented from doing her job properly, and other staff writers were being penalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat gave me no option but to leave the show,\u201d Ms. Gupta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Haskins and Ms. Halpern said in a statement: \u201cTo be clear, we have never done and would never do anything to penalize or retaliate against anyone who raised these concerns. We are devastated that many of the inflammatory claims that have been made about us are simply not tethered to the reality of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Ms. Gupta\u2019s departure, Ms. Magee met with Ms. Goldsmith and another human resources executive, Tim Farrell, to express her concerns. Ms. Magee described the meeting as tense. At one point, she said, her eyes welled up with tears. In her view, Mr. Farrell was unsympathetic, asking Ms. Magee if she had a massage scheduled for that weekend, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn truth,\u201d Ms. Magee said, \u201cthe people who are there to enforce the new protocol just don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CBS said in response, \u201cOur human resources team always endeavors to address issues in a professional and sensitive manner, and we must clarify that certain allegations about them have either been misstated or taken wholly out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Magee said she found herself stripped of nearly all her writing responsibilities after talking with human resources, a point disputed by the showrunners\u2019 lawyer, who said she had been relieved of some duties well before the on-set tensions. CBS said there was \u201cno evidence\u201d that the showrunners had \u201cretaliatory intent in their interactions with the writer or the producer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Magee quit last month. \u201cI did not want to leave,\u201d she said. \u201cI love doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Gupta and Ms. Magee hired Natasha Chesler, an employment lawyer with the Los Angeles firm Chesler McCaffrey. They told her they wanted to be paid only what they were owed under their contracts and said they would not sign nondisclosure agreements. CBS agreed to pay them and said it \u201csupported their request to waive any contractual provisions that would prevent them from speaking about their experiences on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Hunt completed sexual harassment training Oct. 1. CBS sent him what it called a \u201cclosure letter,\u201d which said in part, \u201cYour behavior caused the individual who raised the concerns to feel genuinely uncomfortable in the workplace and it reflected a disregard for CBS\u2019 policies and guidance in the matter. You are hereby cautioned not to engage in such behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Magee and Ms. Gupta said they never imagined they would end up leaving the show, back when they made their complaints. \u201cAll we wanted was for him to watch like a 45-minute harassment video,\u201d Ms. Magee said. \u201cNone of this had to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rachel Abrams joined The Times as a business reporter in 2013. She was part of the award-winning teams that covered sexual harassment and misconduct and General Motors\u2019 crisis involving fatal ignition switches. She previously worked for Variety. @rachelabramsny<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nDeciding to Go to H.R.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A Second Writer Quits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n