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CBS sues ABC for attempting BB copycat show

Eggs Mayonnaise

Eggs Mayonnaise

All In With The Nuts
Articles are by Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred, so it's part news, part snark:
Why ABC’s new summer live feed series Glass House already seems better than Big Brother

by Andy Dehnart / April 30, 2012, 4:51 PM

Anyone who watches Big Brother knows that the show is in a rut. Heck, its dumb contestants even know exactly what challenge or twist is happening because they know what day it is. It’s frustrating that CBS and the show’s producers have refused to evolve the game beyond a few lame twists and redecoration of the show’s house.

But there’s hope, thanks to ABC, which is copying Big Brother and turning it into The Glass House, which will follow 14 contestants living in a house and competing for $250,000. The show won’t start taping until the end of May, and it won’t debut until June 18, but on paper, it already seems better than the CBS series it is knocking off. Here are five reasons why:

Interaction between players and viewers. ABC says viewers will “vote to decide everything from what players wear and eat to the games they play, even where they sleep.” That sounds dangerously close to the lame-ass voting Big Brother offers. But here’s the awesome part: “Viewers will also have the chance to give their favorite contestants feedback on their game from outside the house.” ABC notes that “how the contestants use that information is up to them, because in the end it’s about who plays the best social game. The most important alliance players can have is with their fans!”

It’s not clear how this exchange will happen, but the house is “totally wired,” so I hope the contestants will have live, uncensored access to social media—not just filtered, curated, censored comments from a few fans who producers think are cute. Just imagine: actual, real-time interaction with reality TV contestants as they play the game. That would be awesome. ABC, don’t let us down!

The live feeds aren’t 24/7. I’m sure some people will find this to be a major weakness, but the feeds apparently won’t be broadcast all the time, meaning it’ll be possible to have a life and watch the series. ABC says that “several times a week, viewers can watch a live online feed of the players.” I am glad we can have engagement without having to be devoted to staring at morons all day in the hopes that they do something interesting—which, for the last few seasons at least, has not happened with the hamsters.

Viewer votes affect eliminations. Viewer “votes [will be] helping to determine which contestants are sent home and also which eliminated players will earn the chance to return to The Glass House to compete each week.” There’s some hedging there—“helping”—that suggests viewers won’t have full control, perhaps to prevent another season one of BB. I’m anxious to learn more about how voting will work.

High definition. The show will be broadcast in HD; Big Brother never has been and may never be. (Here’s why Big Brother is not in HD.)

It’s produced by a former Big Brother producer. Executive producer Kenny Rosen’s production credits include The Joe Schmo Show (which was brilliant) and Big Brother (up until season eight, apparently), so hopefully he knows what’s broken about the show he worked on.

Let’s hope all this comes together with strong casting to make for a really engaging summer series.
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CBS files a (fascinating) lawsuit over Glass House’s connections to Big Brother

by Andy Dehnart / May 10, 2012, 6:27 PM

After warning ABC about the connections between its announced series Glass House and CBS’ Big Brother, CBS has filed suit.

The full lawsuit (PDF via The Hollywood Reporter’s story) sues Disney, ABC, producers, and many individuals who now work on the ABC show but used to work on the CBS show, claiming ABC’s “is a carbon copy of Big Brother and an obvious attempt by Defendants to capitalize on its unique success.” The lawsuit says there has been “blatant theft of its copyrightable expression, trade secrets, and other confidential and proprietary information.”

Most comical is the section that describes the show:
“Big Brother is a ground-breaking reality television show that involves a contest among guests who live in a house and who are filmed continuously, perform challenges and tasks, and vote each other of the show. … Big Brother was the first series of its kind to combine the drama and competition of elimination with the developing teelvision genre of modern observational documentary.
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Um, anyone at CBS ever hear of Survivor? Or ABC’s Making the Band, which premiered months earlier and did exactly that? (There is a chance they are referring to the original Dutch format that it is based on, but the language demonstrates one of the challenges of these kinds of claims. The lawsuit also cites “unique interactive features” of the show that include America’s Player and the 24-hour feed, and compares them to Glass House’s announced format.

The lawsuit—worth a read because of all the details it goes into—mentions that producers had access to “critically important documents”: the “House Guest Manual,” “Producer’s Binder,” and “Story Producer’s Handbook,” and also cites the producers and crew members’ “unprecedented and troubling degree of access to CBS’s copyrightable expression, as well as CBS’s protected trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information related to the behind-the-scenes development, filming, and production of Big Brother.” It insists that “none of these protected trade secrets can be discovered or ‘reverse engineered’ merely by watching Big Brother.”

In other words: Big Brother is much, much harder to produce than it seems. You try to get a challenge to ejaculate on a mentally unstable person who’s being manipulated by flirty producers.
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I would love the new show to have a chance -- somebody has to kick the BB producers' lazy asses to make changes to the show before it rots completely. (It almost did last season)
 
I read this article a couple weeks ago (I think) very interesting. Now ideas are "intellectual property"??
 
What will probably happen is, ABC will pay CBS a wad of cash, and promise not to use any familiar BB terms, like nomination, power of veto, eviction, head of household, diary room, or slop.

But CBS is prickish enough to keep the suit going long enough so that ABC can't premiere the show this summer, and will have to wait a whole year since these kinds of shows don't fit into a fall/spring schedule.
 
Glass House FAQ at ABC.com

How does the show work?
When the show begins, fourteen people are living in a house together, participating in challenges - with America making the decisions about what happens in the house. Each week there will be somebody eliminated from the house. The winner is the last person left in the house - as voted on by you, the public!

What are the decisions that America makes to effect what happens in the house? America will have the opportunity to vote on a variety of things relating to the house. Not only will the public ultimately decide who stays or goes, but it will also influence other show elements like including what the houseguests wear, where they sleep, what they eat, and who gets another shot at the game.

How does a player on the show get removed from the house?
After losing a challenge, the team captain of the losing team goes to "limbo" - along with another member from the losing team that the house votes on.

What is "limbo?"
Limbo is where two people from the house go after losing a challenge. It's an area outside of the house where the two people go until one of them is allowed to return to the house.

How are the captains for the challenges determined?
The two people with the fewest votes from the public become team captains for that week's challenge.

How does somebody return to the house from limbo?
America chooses who they think deserves to return to the house. All the power is in the public's hands.

What happens to the person who America doesn't choose to return to the house?
That person is out of the game permanently.

How many episodes will air for The Glass House?
Ten episodes will air as part of season 1.

How can I help determine what happens in the house?
You can influence a variety of events in the house by voting in the Live Stream Voting, the Daily Voting and by choosing your favorites in the house.

What is the Live Stream Voting?
The Live Stream Voting lets you have real-time influence of events seen during the live stream.

What is the Daily Voting?
The Daily Voting includes a number of voting opportunities each day through which you can influence events in the house - including major decisions such as who should be given a chance to return to the house from Limbo. This voting impacts on-air episodes.

How does the voting for favorites work?
You can vote on as few or as many people that you'd like to stay in the house. At the end of the current voting period, the two people with the fewest number of votes become team captains for that week's challenge.

When does the live streaming occur?
Four hours on Monday evening from 8pm PST to 12am PST - and also Tuesday thru Thursday at 12pm PST.

How can I audition to be on the show?
You can get casting info for Glass House at http://abc.go.com/site/casting
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The thing is, it's a ripoff of the REAL Big Brother, which is the format more like the UK's and other countries. The US BB quickly morphed into "Survivor in a house" and took all participation away from the audience other than fapping to the feeds. So it's technically different enough that the new show isn't such a ripoff of it.

Should be an interesting case. Or not.
 
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