Life Imitates Reality TV When Execs Square Off

Here’s the concept: Take a group of blunt-talking, hyper-competitive overachievers. Install them in the sub-basement of a deluxe Century City hotel. Watch the heated accusations of theft and treachery break out.

No, it’s not some unholy hybrid of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.” This game is playing out in real life, as network executives at a semiannual TV critics gathering at the Century Plaza Hotel stage a down-and-dirty war over copycat “reality” shows.

Executives at NBC and ABC have angrily accused Fox of stealing ideas for unscripted series about boxing and, of all things, wife swapping. Fox fired back with an outraged defense Thursday -- as well as a stunt involving boxing gloves and a “Rocky III” soundtrack that gave the proceedings a touch of the reality-style high jinks central to the programs everybody’s fighting about.

TV veterans point out that networks borrow ideas all the time, as any viewer who’s witnessed cycles of hospital dramas, yuppie sitcoms and forensic cop shows can attest. But in these latest cases, the distinctive nature of reality TV itself is helping to boost the tensions.

“These shows are outcome-dependent,” said Los Angeles-based litigator Jonathan Anschell. “Who’s the person who will become Donald Trump’s apprentice? Who’s the person who’ll become the American idol? Once one network captures that excitement, it’s hard for another network to duplicate it.”

And reality shows can be knocked out in weeks, which makes it easier to imitate a rival’s concept, unlike sitcoms and dramas, which typically take months or even years to develop.

While originality has seldom been a hallmark of network TV, the network suits are apoplectic that Fox is racing to launch its rival shows as preemptive first strikes, which could well hurt the prospects for NBC’s “The Contender” and ABC’s “Wife Swap,” both on the fall schedule.

The glut of copycats might eventually take their toll on the reality genre, which in four years has mushroomed from a marginal trend to the brightest hope of the beleaguered broadcast TV business. Because reality shows are devouring so many time slots once earmarked for sitcoms and dramas, some long-suffering TV veterans are even praying that the current fracas may help hasten the demise of the trend. That’s not likely soon; the genre has become so accepted that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which announced Emmy nominations Thursday, has this year created not one but two categories to honor the unscripted shows.

NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker got the brouhaha started Saturday when he violated an unwritten rule in the industry by spilling the goods on two previously unreported Fox reality projects: one called “Who’s My Daddy?” and another, “Big Shot,” in which business types compete for a job with a tycoon who turns out to be a fraud. TV executives pride themselves on knowing what competitors are up to, often learning the latest gossip from top agents and keeping written, continuously updated tallies of competitive projects in development. But it was in the past considered bad form -- as well as an invitation for reprisal -- to toss such intelligence to a roomful of eager reporters.

Then on Monday, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson stoked the fires by helpfully warning reality producers to avoid pitching ideas to Fox: “They will steal it, plain and simple,” he said at the critics’ conference by video hookup from Paris, where he’s honeymooning.

But to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, idea theft is rarely plain and never simple. Or at least that’s the contention of Fox executives, who maintain the reality craze has spawned so many similar pitches that an idea’s provenance is almost impossible to determine.

“People who are acting as if they invented the sport of boxing are disingenuous, at the least,” Fox entertainment President Gail Berman told reporters Thursday. “The baseless allegations of theft and extortion are outrageous and unacceptable.”

She suggested NBC was afraid that Fox was gaining too much ground among young viewers and that ABC’s own delays had paved the way for Fox’s wife-swapping show. But Berman insisted that she won’t launch a counterstrike by revealing details of secret NBC projects, even though, she said, “I do know loads.”

Fox has long been a leader in the reality genre, and its parent firm, News Corp., this week announced plans for an all-reality cable and satellite network.

Fox’s reality guru Mike Darnell -- accused by rivals of masterminding many of the reality rip-offs -- had his turn in the spotlight Thursday afternoon. Darnell, who made his name with controversial projects such as “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” and “When Animals Attack,” appeared at a news conference clad in shorts and boxing gloves, dancing to “Eye of the Tiger.” “I found out the other day that Jeff Zucker’s my daddy,” he joked to reporters. Even after his stunt was over, he offered no apologies: “All of us are very aggressive in this industry.... We don’t feel bad at all” for the reality uproar.

But the level of aggressiveness has startled even some producers, a bunch not typically known for their frail constitutions. Fox’s “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy” debuts July 20, well in advance of ABC’s “Wife Swap,” an Americanized version of a British hit. All the series feature women who temporarily trade families.

“The attitude in the British industry was one of real shock that this could happen,” Jenny Crowther, the British-based producer of “Wife Swap,” said of the sudden competition from Fox. “It isn’t something that we’re used to at home, really.”

“It’s like the Wild West,” said Mark Burnett, the reality guru behind “Survivor,” “Apprentice” and now “The Contender,” which Fox is attempting to beat with its own boxing reality series, “The Next Great Champ.”

In the past, “there was kind of an unwritten code” about appropriating rivals’ concepts, Burnett said. “But now, with all these conglomerates owning networks and producing shows, there’s a lot at stake. The competitive environment is so strong, [the code] goes out the window.”

Some rivals say Burnett might not be following the code himself. Mark Cuban, the billionaire of ABC’s “The Benefactor,” and boxer Oscar de la Hoya of Fox’s “Champ” said that Burnett tried unsuccessfully to lure them to his shows in an effort to stamp out competition.

Reality shows lack many of the copyright protections available to sitcoms and dramas, attorney Anschell said. A writer who claims his idea was stolen by a network could help prove his case by pointing out similarities between his script and the finished show. But in reality TV there are no scripts to compare, which makes a copyright-infringement claim hard to prove.

CBS found that out the hard way last year when it sued unsuccessfully over ABC’s “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” CBS had argued that the show was a rip-off of “Survivor,” but the court rejected that view, pointing out many differences between the series. The judge described TV programming as “a continual evolutionary process involving borrowing frequently from what has gone before.”

Faced with limited legal options, producers and agents say they’re trying to protect their work by, among other things, throwing a cloak of near-total secrecy around upcoming projects and adding different features, such as celebrity involvement.

Meanwhile, at least one group appears to be enjoying the reality dust-up: the agents, actors and writers who have felt shoved to the sidelines as series like “American Idol” and “Survivor” have soaked up the spotlight once reserved for scripted shows.

“This is great, because it means that [networks will] run out and put more [bad] reality shows on the air,” said one agent who represents several top sitcom and drama writers.

But the real measure of the current battles will come in the fall, once all the ratings have come in for the respective shows.

Viacom Co-President Leslie Moonves -- who as CBS boss played a key role in the lawsuit over “I’m a Celebrity” -- hinted that some might be protesting too much in the current copycat wars. Moonves and Zucker, in particular, have frequently traded barbs in a seeming race to become the reigning statesman of the TV business. But their spats seem minor compared with the reality copycat wars.

“It’s unfortunate that this is what the rules of the game have become,” Moonves said when asked by The Times on Thursday about the issue. “But everyone is sort of guilty of it. It’s a terrible practice, but it happens at more networks than just Fox.”

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Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.