Just less than two years after Dan Schneider was given a green light on his Quiet on Set defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros Discovery and others, a trio of appeal judges has handed the former Nickelodeon producer a big defeat.
Slamming Schneider for relying on “a theory of defamation by implication,” California’s Second District Court of Appeal panel sad Thursday it will “refrain from splitting hairs to find an allegation of child sexual abuse where the only such abuse discussed is explicitly attributed to named perpetrators and the documentary expressly states that an investigation into Schneider found no evidence of abuse.”
What the panel did not refrain from was reversing a November 2024 ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ashfaq G. Chowdhury denying the anti-SLAPP efforts by Warner Bros Discovery and Maxine Productions to have the iCarly creator’s suit dismissed. The appeals court concluded in its 37-page order “that Schneider has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of his defamation claim.”
Schneider filed the defamation suit against Warner Bros Discovery, Maxine Productions, Sony Pictures and Quiet on Set producers Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz soon after the disturbing Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries premiered in March 2024.
At the time, Schneider insisted Quiet on Set was a “hit job” that resulted in the annihilation of his “legacy and reputation.” A big hit viewerwise for ID, the five-episode series examined two child sexual abusers who work on Schneider shows: dialogue coach Brian Peck and former production assistant Jason Handy. In his 2024 filing, Schneider asserted he had “no knowledge of their abuse, was not complicit in their abuse.”
WBD did not responded today to Deadline’s request for comment on the ruling and their reversal of fortune.
The appeal was argued by Gibson Dunn attorneys before judges Rashida Adams, Anne Egerton and Mark Hanasono on August 17. The Gibson Dunn team of Theodore J. Boutrous, Ilissa Samplin, Zachary Freund, and Connor Sullivan was brought aboard after the defendants saw their move to get the case tossed out rejected in late 2024.
To that, the trio determined the 2024 Investigation Discovery series “clearly distinguishes between the lamentable conduct that its participants attribute to Schneider — gender discrimination, harassment, toxic workplace behavior, and inappropriate sexual innuendo — and the child sexual abuse explicitly attributed to three named individuals, two of whom are discussed at length.”
They add: “Quiet on Set also affirmatively states that Schneider’s employer investigated his conduct and, while it confirmed some inappropriate behavior, it found no evidence of child sexual abuse. Schneider’s attempt to find an alternative meaning than what is expressly stated in the documentary is unavailing.”
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