CBS THROWS LEGAL ROCKS AT ABC’S GLASS HOUSE; MISSES

Federal Judge Gary Feess indicated today (Friday) that he is not likely to grant CBS’s request for a temporary injunction that would block ABC’s upcoming reality series The Glass House from debuting on Monday. CBS had argued that the show was a virtual copy of its own long-running reality series Big Brother and that it was being produced by several former staff members of that series, including showrunner Kenny Rosen, who may have broken nondisclosure agreements. ABC, however, maintained that Glass House mostly uses standard reality-show elements and an audience-participation facet made it distinctly different from Big Brother. Judge Feess appeared to agree, saying that the audience’s involvement “is very likely to induce quite different behavior than one would expect to see in the Big Brother show.” He said that he would consider CBS’s arguments made in his Los Angeles courtroom today but that he didn’t expect to change his tentative decision not to grant an injunction.