Double trouble

Wannabe budding tycoons compete against each other to win a highly-paid job with one of the country's top entrepreneurs. If the format sounds familiar, the title confirms that The Apprentice, which begins on BBC2 next week, is nothing new.

This 12-part series is the British version of the US hit, also called The Apprentice, in which multi-millionaire Donald Trump oversaw the progress of the hopefuls and sacked one each week until the winner was declared. The prize was a year-long contract running one of Trump's business projects.

Alan Sugar takes that role in the BBC2 show which does, at least, acknowledge its US origins. Other shows have been more economical with the truth about where they came from. The result is that Broadcast magazine highlighted what it dubbed "formats vs. copycats" as one of the TV battlegrounds for the coming year.

Some formats, like those of Big Brother and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, are sold throughout the world, becoming a brand or franchise. Others are more difficult to pin down. When it first appeared in 1996, Changing Rooms gave the DIY programme a new look and prompted the avalanche of makeover and lifestyle shows that still fill the schedules today.

Changing Rooms may have been axed by the BBC but its legacy lives on in umpteen shows. Home makeover was followed by the property show boom, but again it was difficult to pin down the format to protect rip-offs being made.

The success of The Osbournes made it OK for celebrities to subject themselves to 24-hour scrutiny by cameras. Five's series following former boxer Chris Eubank was one of the more interesting series that resulted.

Now the fight has been taken across the Atlantic as US networks look to successful British series for inspiration. The makers of US programme Trading Spouses are being taken to court by the company behind Wife Swap, C4's hit reality show in which wives switch husbands for a week with often explosive results. Over here, five has shown Trading Spouses and, to most viewers, it's difficult to see what, if any, are the differences between the US and British editions.

RDF, which makes Wife Swap, is also making a version of the show for the American market so obviously doesn't welcome competition from a US lookalike.

Nanny 911, in which unruly children are tamed by a modern-day Mary Poppins (but without the spoonful of sugar), was on screen in the US before the American version of Supernanny, another C4 show, could be broadcast.

In this country, war broke out between Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller over The X Factor. Fuller claims that the ITV talent show is a rip-off of another ITV talent show, Pop Idol. The X Factor, which returns to ITV later this year, was produced by Cowell's company, Syco.

The matter is likely to be resolved in court, although establishing copycat claims is difficult. "It is often said that there has never been a successful case within the TV industry proving intellectual property theft and most people are pessimistic about it," according to Broadcast.

Others think the answer isn't a courtroom battle but for our programme-makers to get formats to American broadcasters earlier, so that the copycats don't have time to produce their own versions.

The problem isn't restricted to rivalry between Britain and America. A British company recently lost a commission from a Belgian TV station to produce a version of a BBC1 show after a rival broadcaster launched its own similar show first.

Sometimes a slight variation on a theme can save any argument. Donald Trump's success in The Apprentice must have been a big reason for another multi-millionaire, Virgin boss Richard Branson, getting involved in a US reality show. The Rebel Billionaire - Branson's Quest For The Best rang the changes and couldn't be accused of being an uncredited double. The 16 young, would-be entrepreneurs travelled the world with the tycoon and competed in a series of daredevil challenges. The winner won a lot of money and a job in the Virgin empire.

Occasionally, even drama producers go head-to-head and find themselves competing with similar projects. When Ridley Scott's Gladiator was a big hit in the cinema a few years ago, TV producers looked for a sword and sandals saga to bring to the small screen. Unfortunately, HBO and ABC appear to have had the same idea - both are making expensive series about ancient Rome and Julius Caesar.

Neither was willing to back down despite the huge amounts of money at stake. Rome is costing HBO more than $100m for the first 12 episodes, while Empire will spend around $30m for eight episodes.

Both series are being shot at studios in Rome. The victor may be the one that gets on screen first, although the real winners are British actors. They queued up for both projects.

James Purefoy, recently seen in the new film of Vanity Fair, says he was offered the role of Mark Antony by both projects on the same day. "Some of my friends are working on Empire," he says. "It's awful, all these English actors in skirts bumping into each other on the streets of Rome. We compare notes."

* The Apprentice begins on BBC2 on Wednesday at 9pm.

Published: 12/02/2005