Mike Epps Accused of Stealing “BET Social Awards” Idea From Producers

Actor and comedian Mike Epps has been the talk of the town lately, and, apparently, it isn’t for his usual rambunctious jokes. In fact, it’s for his forthcoming TV project with BET.

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Recently, the network announced that they’d joined forces with Epps to develop the ‘BET Social Awards,’ which is a ceremony focusing on the celebration of the ‘best and worst of social media’ in 2017. Executive produced by Epps, the show is set to premiere on February 11th, 2018 at 10/9c.

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However, as of late, the ‘Meet the Blacks’ actor has been threatened with a lawsuit, for allegedly stealing the show idea from three producers, TMZ reports. Calvin Valrie, LaMichael Finney, and Bervick J. Deculus have all teamed up, hired a lawyer, and sent off a cease and desist letter to Epps, and from what the three claim, they were actually the first to bring the vision forth.

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According to Valrie, Finney, and Deculus, they pitched a show called ‘Social Media Awards’ to Epps’ cousin back in February of this year and had high hopes of bringing Epps on board for it. After not hearing back from him, they soon caught wind of BET’s ‘Social Awards’ being greenlit for TV. Now, the producers are out to get what they are saying to be “theirs” by all means necessary.

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Not so fast, though. Epps’ rep told TMZ that Epps actually brought the show plot to BET in July of 2015, and it has even been in development since October of that same year.

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“Their allegations are completely false, in reckless disregard for the truth, defamatory and the letter from their attorney is without any merit whatsoever,” the rep went on to explain.

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Despite trying to sue Epps, TMZ says that Valrie, Finney, and Deculus are still willing to work with Epps, only if they could sell the show to FOX, instead.

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Although there are two sides to every story, who’s to say that these guys aren’t just upset that they didn’t get a piece of the pie? In the words of DJ Khaled, “They don’t want to see you win…”