Big Time Rush creator Scott Fellows is taking legal action against Sony Music, accusing the label of deliberately cutting him out of profits from the band’s reunion tour.
Fellows, who created the beloved Nickelodeon series that ran from 2009 to 2013 and launched the real-life careers of Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Logan Henderson, and Carlos PenaVega, has filed a breach of contract lawsuit claiming Sony orchestrated a “bad faith entity shell game” to deny him his rightful earnings.
According to the complaint, Fellows had been receiving 3.75% of the band’s touring revenue during their original run under Sony Music. However, after the group disbanded in 2014, those payments stopped.
Things changed in 2021 when Big Time Rush reunited as an independent act. As part of their comeback, the band reportedly struck a licensing deal with Sony and Nickelodeon to use their name and past music catalog in exchange for 10% of future revenues. But Fellows claims Sony “restructured its inter-company arrangements” in a way that effectively erased his entitlement to a share of those new earnings.
Fellows is now suing to recover what he believes is his fair share from the band’s 2022 reunion tour, as well as the upcoming In Real Life world tour, which kicks off on July 9.
The legal dispute highlights the murky waters of intellectual property, licensing rights, and profit-sharing in the entertainment industry—especially when beloved franchises like Big Time Rush make high-profile comebacks.