Cops sued over age discrimination

A 22-year employee of the production company that does Cops has filed a lawsuit saying he was wrongfully terminated because he was over 40 years old.

Steven W. Kilger, 57, filed the suit today in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying that he had an "exemplary track record" at Langley Productions, which produces the long-running Fox reality series. But he says he was fired in the fall of 2010 because the company “adopted an illegal policy of ridding itself of older workers in favor of younger workers,” per the suit.

Kilger claims that management recognized his outstanding worked and that he was part of their "top tier of shooters," - the people who capture the series' police action via camera. He was earning just under $100,000 a year plus performance bonuses as an associate producer.

An email that is part of the suit alleges that a producer emailed Morgan Stanley saying that, “We look for young guys who are hungry, who will work for less $$.”

The suit says that the company “constituted oppression, fraud and malice, and was motivated by hostility and ill will” entitling Kiger to punitive damages.

Fox is not named as a defendant in the suit.

I am stunned...that Cops is still on the air. Who knew?