ABC JOINS NBC IN ACCUSING FOX OF REALITY SHOW RIP-OFFS

The reality TV copycat wars escalated Monday when ABC executives sharply criticized Fox for its aggressive programming of shows similar to those underway at rival networks.

ABC Primetime President Stephen McPherson said writers and developers should be wary of showing ideas to Fox.

“They will steal it, plain and simple,” he said in a videocast from Paris to the Television Critics Assn. meeting in Century City.

While networks routinely snipe at one another privately, the open display of vitriol in this case is unusual and offers further evidence of how popular -- and fiercely competitive -- the reality genre has become over the last four years.

The ABC executives echoed complaints by their NBC counterparts, who Saturday excoriated Fox for a boxing reality show, “The Next Great Champ,” which they say rips off NBC’s upcoming “The Contender,” from reality guru Mark Burnett.

Fox “used to be innovators and now they’re imitators,” NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said Saturday. Zucker went even further in his attack on Fox, revealing the rival network’s plans for two new reality shows.

Walt Disney-owned ABC has been touting “Wife Swap,” a fall reality series in which two women temporarily switch families. Fox has its own spin on the same concept, “Trading Spouses,” which premieres July 20 -- well before the ABC series.

“It’s bad for the business,” McPherson said from his honeymoon in Paris. “I just think it’s a pattern .... I think it would be disconcerting to the creative community to know this kind of behavior exists.”

McPherson’s boss, Disney-ABC Television President Anne Sweeney, added later that Fox’s behavior “sends a very dismal signal” to the rest of the television industry.

A Fox spokesman said the network had no comment on the remarks by the ABC executives.

Meanwhile, with the presidential campaign in full swing, ABC News President David Westin announced the formation of a 24-hour news service that network affiliates will be able to broadcast over their digital signals starting July 26 and running through Election Day.

In part, the move answers some critics who have complained that network news divisions have sharply cut back on political reporting in recent years. ABC has been particularly disadvantaged in that respect, because unlike NBC and Fox it does not have a sister cable network devoted to news.

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Reuters contributed to this report