Nah, they ginned up all kids of "restructuring" excuses, and framed the artists for "lewd content" when they were just discussing drugs and AIDs the same way the white comics had been. Maybe the knives were out, maybe they weren't, but if they weren't, they did everything to make it look that way.
As for the show itself, it's pretty fun. I've never been much into superheros and Supes ranked pretty low on my interest list but Jack Quaid is killing it in the role and it's neat that Lois is attracted to Clark first instead of his persona.