Fox Challenges CBS’ ‘Survivor’ in Court Filings

Fox Broadcasting Co. lobbed a legal salvo at CBS this week, claiming the hit television program “Survivor” is not based on reality, and that the show’s executive producer manipulated voting by contestants.

Fox’s filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles was made in defense of its “Boot Camp” program is the latest round in an escalating court battle between the television companies.

Last month, CBS sued Fox, alleging that “Boot Camp” was a wholesale rip-off of “Survivor.” Scott Messick, a former director of “Survivor” who left the show to become an executive producer of “Boot Camp,” also was named in the suit by CBS.

In the documents filed in court Monday, Fox asserts that “Boot Camp” and “Survivor” are completely different shows.

“The contestants on ‘Boot Camp’ do not sit around starving, trying to catch bugs or fish; the recruits on ‘Boot Camp’ undergo a mentally and physically challenging conditioning that is the core of life as a Marine recruit from ‘wake-up’ until light’s out,” Fox contends in the court filings.

Fox also cites claims against CBS made by Stacey E. Stillman, a contestant on the first “Survivor” series. In a separate lawsuit filed February in Superior Court in San Francisco, Stillman alleges that she was voted off the show after “Survivor” executive producer Mark Burnett allegedly persuaded two other contestants to support another contestant.

CBS has called Stillman’s allegations baseless and filed a counter-suit against her, seeking $5 million for contract violations.

An attorney for CBS declined to comment Wednesday on Fox’s claims.

In the ratings war between the two shows, CBS clearly is winning. While the final episode of “Survivor: The Australian Outback” last Thursday was the No. 1 show of the week with more than 36 million viewers, the audience for “Boot Camp” has been sliding. It premiered March 28 with 15.8 million viewers but was down to 9.3 million viewers last week.

Fox’s latest filings coincided with Burnett’s admission Monday that he reenacted some scenes of the hit CBS show. During a Museum of Television & Radio panel discussion in New York, Burnett revealed that “stand-ins” sometimes were used to re-create action scenes.

That admission doesn’t necessarily bolster Stillman’s allegations. However, in a declaration filed in Los Angeles Superior Court two weeks ago, one of the contestants Burnett allegedly persuaded to stiff Stillman, Dirk Been, said he didn’t want to talk.

Concerned he might scuttle his chances of success in Hollywood, Been said he didn’t want to divulge the behind-the-scenes events of “Survivor.”

“I am pursuing a career as a performer,” Been stated in his motion for a protective order. “I believe it would create significant professional embarrassment and hardship to reveal my private impressions on a production company and its production methods and would also create an impression in the industry that I am uncooperative and cannot be trusted.”

This isn’t the first time CBS and a division of Fox have clashed over too-similar-for-comfort television series. Fox Family Properties Inc. sued CBS in November over a program based on a race around the world.

That case could go to trial as early as this fall.

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Times staff writer Brian Lowry contributed to this report.