James Van Der Beek Sues SiriusXM Over $700K Podcast Agreement

Former Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek has sued SiriusXM and Stitcher for breach of contract over a podcast agreement allegedly worth at least $700,000.

According to the suit, filed in Los Angeles on Aug. 26, Van Der Beek reached an agreement over email with executives from the audio giant to host 40 podcast episodes, to be released weekly, in exchange for a $700,000 minimum guarantee and a 50 percent cut of the net ad revenue. Other financial terms outlined by the lawsuit include a $153,000 production budget and $50,000 marketing budget, both recouped against revenue.

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But around July 8, SiriusXM ultimately backed away from the deal despite previous communications over email dating back to April that the company was “ready to call terms officially closed,” according to the suit. As a result, Van Der Beek has accused SiriusXM of reneging on its agreement after he had already “stopped negotiating with other buyers and affirmatively rejected those other offers” in order to work with SiriusXM and Stitcher.

“The agreed-upon deal even provided [SiriusXM] with a first look so that [Van Der Beek] could not work on any other podcasts. Yet, after the project was green lit and several subsequent actions had been taken by [SiriusXM] to set the podcast up, Sirius and Stitcher reneged on the agreement and told [Van Der Beek] that they would not perform,” the suit said.

A representative for SiriusXM declined to comment.

Van Der Beek is seeking damages exceeding the $700,000 agreement.

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