While Fox News fends off twin attacks from the new "documentary" Outfoxed and the New York Times Magazine, the flagship Fox network was slammed this week with allegations of "theft" from rivals NBC and ABC:

NBC executives over the weekend, in press sessions with TV critics who are gathered here to preview fall programs, had slammed Fox, which in the past months has announced copies of both NBC's "The Contender" and ABC's "Wife Swap."

The difference between Fox's current strategy and the long-established industry practice of copying successful shows is that Fox will put its copies on the air first.

In the case of "The Contender," Fox lost a bidding war with NBC, then announced it would stage a similar boxing show, "The Next Great Champ," and air it before "The Contender." Said Sylvester Stallone, host and producer of "The Contender," "Bootlegging has finally made it to prime time."

ABC echoed NBC's criticism. ABC's new entertainment president, Stephen McPherson, now on a honeymoon in Paris, addressed the critics via satellite hookup.

"If I was a member of the creative community," said McPherson, "it would be incredibly disconcerting to me that if you take a show into Fox, and they can't, don't or decide not to buy it, they will steal it. Plain and simple.

"I think it's really upsetting, I think it's bad for the business, I think it's bad for the broadcast networks, and I don't think it's right. ...

"It's one thing to do a direct rip-off, it's another thing to do something that's inspired by, or moves in a new direction off an existing idea."

"Multiple projects with similar themes are being pitched simultaneously," Berman said. "We are constantly striving to find the next new big idea while exploring ideas in the popular culture. In the creative world, ideas are fluid, and no one can claim sole ownership of an entire arena. People who are acting as if they invented the sport of boxing are disingenuous at the least."

...

Berman said it is the nature of the television business to have similarly themed programming, and pointed to the fact that a trio of networks — ABC, NBC and CBS — all aired telefilms about the notorious "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher in late 1992 and early 1993 as an example.

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