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"Survivor" Takes "Celebrity" to Court
CBS is hoping for a little Celebrity death match.
If the Eyeball gets its way, ABC's planned upcoming reality effort I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here will be stranded on an island of litigation--and off the airwaves.
CBS says the show--a British import produced by Granada Entertainment USA that dumps a group of semi-celebrities into the middle of nowhere and follows their progress as they compete in challenges and fend off one other--is a blatant rip-off of Survivor.
Now, following through on a legal threat made two months ago, CBS has gone to court to halt production of the show and bar ABC from ever televising it. And the Eye is also looking for some major punitive damages (amount unspecified).
Celebrity is "consciously designed to mimic Survivor and unfairly trade on its success," reads a petition filed this week in U.S. District Court in New York by the network and Survivor Productions, a company jointly owned by the CBS and Survivor creator Mark Burnett.
The complaint cites trademark infringement and unfair competition.
Like much of the reality programming dotting the prime-time TV lineup, the shows do have some striking similarities: remote location, physical challenges, 24-hour cameras. The main difference between the shows is the booty and the voting process. The Survivor winner is voted on by the Tribal Council of show participants and banks a hefty million bucks. The Celebrity winner will likely donate winnings to charity and will be voted on via a phone-in poll à la American Idol.
It's not yet clear how the case will impact the show, but a spokesman for Granada said the company intends to carry on with preproduction and is on track for an early 2003 run on ABC.
"It is regrettable that CBS is intending to take action against us," Granada said in a statement. "Their claim that our format infringes their rights in Survivor is entirely unfounded, and we will strongly defend any proceedings that may be issued."
A rep from ABC offered "no comment" about the lawsuit, but the network is not all that surprised by the recent turn of events. CBS sent its rival a cease-and-desist letter in September, just days after ABC announced plans to broadcast 15 episodes of an American version of the hit U.K. show.
The threat was ignored, and ABC moved forward with its Celebrity plans. Just a week ago ABC confirmed to E! Online it was moving forward with casting efforts.
This isn't the first Survivor-Celebrity legal showdown. This week's case comes on the heels of a similar legal tussle in the U.K., where British producers of Survivor went to court to shut down further episodes of the original I'm a Celebrity. That case is currently pending.
In unrelated Mark Burnett news, the Survivor mastermind is planning to try his hand at non-reality TV. He just signed a deal with the WB to create a comedy about a father who drags his two teenage kids to Europe to get them to approve of his new fiancée, according to Daily Variety. The untitled series, which will likely bow in fall 2003 but may debut as early as next summer, will start shooting in Spain and travel across the continent.
"I can't think of anybody better than Mark Burnett to entrust the execution of a series shot in foreign locations," WB Entertainment president Jordan Levin told Variety. "You get more than simply fantastic production values from Mark; he's also proven he has the ability to create compelling characters and stories."
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