Big Brother

ABC scored a victory — at least for now — in the lawsuit over its upcoming reality series Glass House. U.S. District Judge Gary Feess on Friday morning temporarily denied CBS’s request for a temporary restraining order against the series, which is scheduled to premiere Jan. 18.

Attorneys for ABC and CBS will appear this morning before U.S. District Judge Gary Feess to argue whetherABC’s new The Glass House should premiere as planned on Monday night, or be bumped from the schedule over copyright and trade secret concerns.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess scheduled arguments for Friday morning, just days before ABC’s Glass House is scheduled to premiere on Monday night. CBS wants the show knocked from airwaves because it claims the new series violates its Big Brother copyrights.

On Tuesday, CBS submitted a new court filing that portrays its legal adversary of being short on the merits and inconsistent in making the case that Glass House isn’t a copycat of CBS’s long-running hit Big Brother.

ABC has fired back at CBS in the fight over the Big Brother-like reality show The Glass House, filing an opposition to CBS’s request for a temporary restraining order Monday night.

CBS included new allegations in a filing Thursday that asks a federal judge to block the June 18 premiere of ABC’s The Glass House. CBS claims the series copies heavily from its hit show Big Brother and relies on experience and techniques used on that long-running series.

“Even CBS must realize it cannot copyright the idea of 14 contestants living in a house rigged with cameras,” the ABC court papers argue.

Big Brother continued its end-of-summer surge last night, matching last week’s season high on a fairly slow night for broadcast. Brother averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., up 10% over a 2.9 last week. The 13th-year program matched the season best set this past Sunday night, and it also tied for the highest-rated episode of the show since September 2007. Its season finale airs next month.