The legal battles over ABC’s now-cancelled 2012 series The Glass House and its similarities to CBS’ Big Brother have ended, with CBS receiving a settlement and an apparent admission that one producer used materials from the CBS show.
After CBS lost in court, it kept pursuing legal action against producers who once worked on Big Brother, and those producers countersued for harassment.
Today, CBS said in a statement,
“We have reached a settlement in arbitration with the parties in The Glass House legal dispute. CBS will receive financial compensation as part of the settlement. The producers have admitted that one of them used confidential Big Brother manuals in the production of The Glass House, and they have expressed regret for using this material. In addition, those involved have pledged not to misappropriate CBS trade secrets in the future.”
Yes, I’m sure the production community is very anxious to rip off the top-secret trade secrets of how to cast people who say awful things and construct the exact same ejaculating challenges year after year. But hey, if it gets ratings, who really cares?