Earlier this week, we eyebrows were raised when ABC announced that they were set to premiere a new reality series this June, which sounded remarkably similar to CBS' summer reality competition series Big Brother. Sure enough, CBS has taken notice and has already sent a legal letter to ABC.
Deadline shared quotes from the letter sent from CBS to ABC warning them that if they proceed with their upcoming reality series The Glass House, they will likely take legal action against it. The competition series, which is scheduled to begin airing in June, is set to feature 14 contestants who live in a state-of-the-art house together and competing for a cash prize. Not only is the series executive produced by former Big Brother Kenny Rosen, but according to the letter CBS's outside counselor Scott A Edelman drafted:
[The Glass House] is produced by a team of at least 18 former members of CBS’ Big Brotherproduction stuff — all of whom were privy to trade secrets and other confidential, proprietary information and signed broad and binding non-disclosure agreements in connection with Big Brother.”
Whether or not ABC backs down or drastically alters the format of their new show remains to be seen. In the meantime, this isn't the only issue CBS has had recently with shows that come a bit too close to other concepts, though it does put CBS on the other side of things this time around. Back in March, CBS had to drop the pilot titled Quean due to its similarities with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And it's very likely that BBC One has its eye on the network over the pilot in development called Elementary, which puts Sherlock Holmes in a modern-day setting, much in the way the U.K. series Sherlock does.
With that in mind, the comment Deadline posted from a "CBS Insider" saying, "Given their behavior in this matter, we assume ABC will have no problem when we announce plans for our upcoming new series Dancin’ Wid Da Stars," seems funny for a different reason. That said, The Glass House sounds like a Big Brother clone. I don't see why there can't be two shows like this (after all, we have more than one singing competition on TV), but ABC might want to consider doing something to noticeably alter the format to differentiate it better.
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