ABC’s Glass House Ripoff Claims Prompt CBS to Get All Weird in Press Release

ABC’s Glass House, according to CBS, is a total, shameless ripoff of their long-running reality show Big Brother — which, let’s face it, is kind of the same but for MTV’s Real World, wherein us kids of the 1990’s watched a group of people picked to live in a house and stop being polite and start being real. It was like, even parodied on Chappelle’s Show more than 10 years ago.

Anyway, ABC’s Glass House, like much of the reality TV genre, is hardly original. The formula is basically either find (blank) people and follow them around, or find (blank) people and stick them in a house and shake it until drama falls out. Fire all the writers. The end.

Since ABC’s Glass House was announced, CBS has been experiencing increasingly knotted panties over the whole ordeal, publicly accusing ABC of stealing their idea and pointing to many similarities in the ways Glass House and Big Brother are structured.

More than that, however, CBS is also calling foul because ABC’s Glass House apparently nicked a lot of production talent from their network. But the feud manifested in a very bizarre way this week with a press release issued by CBS that sounds like it was written by a sullen seventh-grader kicked out of the AV club after a pre-talent show coup.

The passive-aggression aimed at ABC’s Glass House kicks off in the title, “CBS Announces Development of ‘Dancing on the Stars,’ An Exciting and Completely Original Reality Program That Owes Its Concept and Execution to Nobody at All.” It reads in part:

“This very creative enterprise will bring a new sense of energy and fun that’s totally unlike anything anywhere else, honest,” said a CBS spokesperson, who also revealed that the Company has been working with a secret team for several months on the creation of the series, which was completely developed by the people at CBS independent of any other programming on the air. “Given the current creative and legal environment in the reality programming business, we’re sure nobody will have any problem with this title or our upcoming half-hour comedy for primetime, POSTMODERN FAMILY.”

In case anyone missed it, the final jab:

“After all,” the spokesperson added, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

While CBS’s rush to prevent ABC’s Glass House is kind of understandable, the press release reaction is hilariously bitter and strange.