'Big Brother' Watching People Living in Glass Houses

Fred Allen

CBS is engaged in saber-rattling with rival network, ABC, threatening litigation over a reality show debuting next month that the folks at Black Rock claim apes one of their popular programs.

CBS, which airs Big Brother, has its Eye, so to speak, on Glass House, which is set to debut next month on ABC. The New York Times reports that CBS sent ABC a lawyer letter complaining that Glass House is "substantially and strikingly" similar to Big Brother. Glass House involves 14 people vying for a cash prize by being the last person standing after spending the summer sharing a home together under the scrutiny of television cameras. Meanwhile, Big Brother, which is set to air its 14th season this summer, involves people living together for three months in a privacy-free zone, cut off from the outside world, but under constant television camera surveillance.  That's entertainment.

In its letter to ABC that hints at litigation, CBS notes that Glass House allegedly employs 18 former Big Brother staffers, according to the Times article.  CBS previously unsuccessfully sued ABC after the latter premiered a reality show entitled I'm a Celebrity--Get Me Out of Here, that CBS alleged infringed on the granddaddy of reality television shows, Survivor.

Radio comic Fred Allen's words: "Imitation is the sincerest form of television," never seemed truer.

Shield Law Protects Reality TV Show Footage

Cover of Above the Law [Blu-ray]

Above the Law, Urban Justice, and Out for Justice are part of the filmography of stout, stone-faced martial arts star Steven Seagal, but also apropos commentary concerning a First Amendment versus Sixth Amendment battle involving a criminal defendant and the reality tv show Steven Seagal Lawman.

Louisiana Judge Patrick McCabe of the 24th Judicial District has ruled that New York-based ITV Studios, producer of the reality show featuring Seagal, a reserve sheriff's deputy, does not have to turn over raw footage of an arrest of a 30-year-old defendant charged with cocaine possession to the defendant's attorney.  Attorney Joe Marino III, who represents the accused, Jimmy Sarrio, wanted the video involving his client's arrest so that he could gauge whether deputies had probable cause to stop and question Sarrio. Counsel for the reality tv show noted that the program involved crime and drugs--"the very essence of news"--and should be protected under Louisiana's Shield Law (Rev. Stat. Sec. 45:1451-1459), as would be documentary footage shot by any journalist.

It's comforting that Judge McCabe found Steven Seagal Lawman satisfied the legal definition of news, because it's unfathomable that a vehicle featuring corpulent chopsocky cop Steven Seagal could be considered entertainment.