CBS Loses Bid To Deep-Six ‘MacGyver’ Profits Suit; Case Set For Trial Next Month

deadline.com:

MacGyver famously can fix anything with two pieces of tape, a paper clip and some balsa wood, but CBS can’t save itself from having to go to trial in two months over profits from the revived series.Even though the network’s rebirthing of the Lucas Till-led MacGyver wrapped last April, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has rejected CBS’ move to blow up the 2018 commissions lawsuit over the show.

Read details of the case below.“CBS has not shown that there are no triable issues of material fact,” Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis said after a summary judgment hearing Tuesday.

She added that lawyers for plaintiffs Hanzer Holdings and Arlita Inc. have put forth “sufficient evidence to show that there are triable issues of material facts as to whether there was a contract and whether there was a meeting of the minds.”Duffy-Lewis set an April 18 trial start date.CBS declined comment, citing the pending litigation.Plaintiffs Hanzer Holdings and Arlita Inc.

are described as “successors in interest” to Major Talent Agency, the packaging agent for the original 1985-92 MacGyver series that was exec produced by Henry Winkler and John Rich.According to their lawsuit filed in December 2018 (read it here), MTA was a third-party beneficiary of the 1984 deal with CBS Studios’ predecessor in interest, Paramount Television, that spawned the series.