Five anchorwomen at NY1 have officially parted ways with the 24-hour New York City cable news channel following an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against the parent company.
Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci had filed the lawsuit against Charter Communications/NY1 in June 2019.
“We are pleased to announce we have reached a confidential resolution of our lawsuit against Charter/NY1,” the anchorwomen said in a statement. “After engaging in a lengthy dialogue with NY1, we believe it is in everyone’s interest – ours, NY1’s and our viewers – that this litigation be resolved and we have mutually agreed to part ways. We want to thank everyone who has supported us through these times – please know that the support from each and every person has made a real difference.”
According to court documents, the anchorwomen — whose ages ranged from 40 to 61 when they filed the lawsuit, and had been fixtures at NY1 for years — were being pushed aside in favor of younger on-air talent after NY1 was purchased by Charter Communications in 2016.
Torre, Shaughnessy, Ramirez, Lee and Farinacci all stated that their air-time was being cut and they were losing opportunities for anchoring, prime reporting stories and promotional events, among other issues such as older male anchors receiving accolades for their longevity with the company while the women were overlooked despite having more years under their belts.
The lawsuit cites that the all-male leadership was to blame for these issues. The lawsuit also stated that the leadership consistently overlooked the anchorwomen’s concerns.
The case was given the green light by a judge to move forward in August 2020 with some of the claims trimmed down, however it was announced on Dec. 31 that the group of anchors were leaving NY1.
“It has been a true privilege to represent Ms. Torre, Ms. Shaughnessy, Ms. Ramirez, Ms. Lee and Ms. Farinacci who have cumulatively been on air at NY1 for more than 100 years. We thank of all of the many people who supported their cause and we thank the many fans who tuned in to watch them fairly and accurately report the news for so many years,” said Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb, of Wigdor Law, in a statement.
