Angry Networks Say Fox Steals

Only a few weeks after NBC announced its upcoming "The Contender," a reality show about boxing featuring Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard, the Fox network announced the strikingly similar boxing show, "The Next Great Champ." And when ABC came up with "Wife Swap," it only took Fox a few months to announce its own "Trading Spouses."

Rip-offs are fairly normal on television but, this time, Fox plans to debut its copies before the shows that inspired them are on the air. And maybe this time, their imitations are just too close for comfort. The television community is up in arms, and "Contender" executive producer Jeffrey Katzenburg says, "I have spent 30 years in Hollywood, and I've never experienced anything like this."

However, Fox maintains that its actions are simply business as usual. Mike Darnell, who heads Fox's reality department, states, "This is a multibillion-dollar industry. It's my job to be as aggressive as we can." He also points to the fact that reality television is full of imitations, such as ABC's "The Benefactor," which is based on "The Apprentice." "It's completely hypocritical of my competitors to say they're not in the same game we are," Darnell argues.