Stealing ideas is business as usual for TV executives

LOS ANGELES — Unlike his counterparts at ABC and NBC, WB chairman Garth Ancier isn't at all concerned about Fox stealing shows from other networks and rushing them on its network before the "original" versions appear.

First, because Fox hasn't stolen any of the WB's shows. (Yet.) And, second, because Ancier doesn't quite seem to understand the controversy, which has been causing a firestorm in Hollywood but has apparently largely escaped his attention.

"I heard about this yesterday," he told a room full of critics who had been talking about it for more than a week. (Huh?)

"This is a medium where people do take non-copyrightable ideas and execute them differently," said Ancier, adding that NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker, as a former executive producer of "The Today Show," ought to know "that's the nature of the business we're in. I actually don't understand what you would be complaining about. If (Fox reality chief) Mike Darnell can turn the show around faster, then that doesn't seem like a problem to me. I mean, that's part of the nature of competition."

The WB's new president of its entertainment division, David Janollari, clearly demonstrated he doesn't get it either. "When 'ER' premiered, 'Chicago Hope' premiered the very same year. Everyone knew those two things were in development."

Yes, but two dissimilar medical dramas that happened to be set in the same city is hardly like stealing the idea for a boxing reality show.

And what about the fact that Fox is taking ideas and getting them on the air before the show whose idea it has taken is produced? Ancier was also unphased by that.

"You can be more aggressive in reality because you can turn a show around faster than a comedy," he said before essentially blaming ABC and NBC for announcing their upcoming reality plans so that the ideas could be stolen.

"If they want to announce it early, they have to take the risk that someone is going to do that show."

Ancier even maintained that if Fox copied its upcoming drama "Jack & Bobby" with something titled, say, "John and Robert" or "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show" with, say, "Roseanne's Blue Screen Comedy" and got their copied version on the air first, "That would be fine.

"I think that's business as usual in TV land," he said. "I think we've all come to accept it over our careers."