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- Initiators / Followers
- Capsule Pitch Description: Description
- Implementation: Implementation
- Big Brother (1999) / Survivor (2000)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Musical Chairs Reality Show
- Implementation: Country Mouse vs. City Mouse. It should be noted that, in the United States, both shows are "on the same side" since one network airs them both. The Big Brother franchise started in 1999 with the Dutch version, while the American version debuted in 2000. Survivor as a franchise name is an American original, though the concept is a reworking of the Swedish Expedition Robinson (1997)
- Big Brother (2000) / Glass House (2001)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality series putting young, attractive, and occasionally psychopathic strangers into a house sealed off from the outside world. The last person standing wins big.
- Implementation: For the most part, Glass House is Big Brother, with one twist — the audience is able to tell the residents what to do. Otherwise, you could say Glass House copied from the Big Brother template. And so can CBS, which sued ABC, as ABC hired many ex-Big Brother staffers for the new show.
- The Amazing Race (2001) / Lost (2001)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality game show where teams travel to exotic locales.
- Implementation: Lost premiered one day earlier.
- American Idol (2002) / Star Search (2003)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Talent competition where the audience and home viewers vote on the best performer, aided by celebrity judges.
- Implementation: American Idol by one year, though Star Search was revived to compete against it. Star Search previously aired from 1983-1995 in syndication. American Idol introduced home viewer voting and celebrity judges, two things Star Search didn't have in its original run.
- Extreme Makeover (2002) / The Swan (2004)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Plastic surgery makeover shows.
- Implementation: Fox's copycat went the Fox Extra Tastelessness Step by putting the women through the hell of plastic surgery and then sent half of them home at the end of the episode while bringing the other half on to a beauty pageant.
- America's Next Top Model (2003) / Project Runway (2004)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality Shows about the fashion industry
- Implementation: Both premiered around the early to mid part of the Turn of the Millennium. Both are headlined by known supermodels. Both have gay Lancers. And both shows became successful Multinational Shows.
- Wife Swap (2004) / Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy (2004)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two polar opposite families trade spouses for several days.
- Implementation: ABC broadcasts Wife Swap and claims to have done it first, while FOX aired Trading Spouses a few weeks before Wife Swap's debut in what seems to be a blatant ripoff (though both appeared to rip off a Chappelle's Show skit that aired one year earlier.)
- Pimp My Ride (2004, MTV) / Overhaulin'' (2004, TLC)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality shows where beaten-up cars are turned into sweet rides
- Implementation: Pimp My Ride is formatted more like Extreme Makeover: The hooptie of the week is collected and the show follows the process of "pimping the car out." Overhaulin goes half-"Makeover", half-Punked, with the car's owner tricked into thinking his/her car has been stolen, impounded, or towed and the show's hosts giving them the run-around while the mechanics do their thing.
- Dog Whisperer (2004) / It's Me or the Dog (2005)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Renowned dog trainers visit troublesome dogs and train not only the animals but their owners as well.
- Implementation: Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan has a rougher approach to being a pack leader than the cruelty-free endorsing Victoria.
- The X Factor (2004) / The Voice (2010)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Musical talent shows with celebrity panels
- Implementation: The X-Factor was made by former Pop Idol and Idol judge and record producer Simon Cowell, The Voice is a format that started in the Netherlands and has been successfully exported to several countries
- The Contender (2005) / The Next Great Champ (2005)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality TV boxing competition.
- Implementation: The Contender was co-hosted by Sylvester Stallone in its first season, and gained notoriety when one of the contestants killed himself partly as a result of losing on the show.
- Miami Ink (2005) / Inked (2005)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Docu Soap reality show about the world of working in a tattoo parlor.
- Implementation: Both quite similar, one on TLC, one on A&E.
- Intervention (2005) / Addicted (2010)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Documentary-style Reality Show about people suffering through addictions
- Implementation: Intervention focuses more on the leadup to the intervention, while Addicted focuses on some post-intervention work as well.
- Little People Big World (2006) / The Little Couple / Our Little Family (2009)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality TV show about the lives of married little people on TLC
- Implementation: The first family has four children while the second couple started out as newlyweds before adopting their two kids. The third family has three children.
- Ace of Cakes (2006) / Cake Boss (2009)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality TV show about creative bakers making cakes.
- Implementation: The two leads are Red Oni, Blue Oni: Duff is usually very relaxed and surrounded by friends while Buddy is a bit more agitated and surrounded by relatives and his four older sisters. Ace Of Cakes makes cakes on the extremely decorative side while Cake Boss forgoes a bit on the fondant for both delicious and decorative cakes.
- Any Dream Will Do aka Joseph (2007) / Grease Is The Word (2007)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Talent Show in which a panel of experts search for the lead for an upcoming musical production.
- Implementation: Joseph was, essentially, The BBC's second season of their Musical Talent Show brand, which they debuted the previous year with How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. Grease Is The Word was ITV's adaptation of the U.S. version of Maria. Joseph had Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Barrowman and Denise Van Outen judging, Grease had David Gest, musical producer David Ian, Brain Friedman from The X Factor and... Sinetta.
- Jon & Kate Plus Eight (2007) / 19 Kids and Counting (2008)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Cameras film the complicated lives of families with a larger-than usual amount of children on TLC.
- Implementation:
- Kitchen Nightmares (2007) / Restaurant: Impossible (2011) & Bar Rescue (2011)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality shows where an established member of the restaurant/hospitality management world tries to save a struggling bar/restaurant from going under, often with a lot of drama over how subpar the food quality and service is
- Implementation: All three shows have a similar premise and no-nonsense hosts. Nightmares has a week to get the restaurant going again, Impossible two days and a budget of $10,000 and Bar Rescue, five days. Rescue is also different because it focuses more on a business aspect than menu/makeover aspect.
- Toddlers & Tiaras (2008, TLC) / Little Miss Perfect (2009, WE tv) & Dance Moms (2011, Lifetime)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality shows that premiered in 2009 about young girls in beauty pageants or dance competitions, and their Stage Moms.
- Implementation: Toddlers and Tiaras has more girls from 1-5, whereas Little Miss Perfect is about girls from 5-10. Dance Moms is about preteen dancers in Abby Lee's dance studio.
- Pawn Stars (2009, History Channel) / Hardcore Pawn (2010, TruTV)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Antiques Roadshow meets American Chopper
- Implementation: Stars tends to focus more on the customers and items being sold. Hardcore focuses more on the American Chopper-style conflicts.
- MasterChef Australia (2009, Network Ten) / My Kitchen Rules (2010, Seven Network)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Aspiring chefs are pit against each other in a series of cooking challenges to find out who is the best in the kitchen.
- Implementation: One of the main differences between the two series is that the contestants in My Kitchen Rules work in pairs, while Masterchef focuses on individuals. MKR contestants are also not required to complete an on-screen audition, instead they are made to participate in an "Instant Restaurant" round, where they must serve a 3 course meal to the judges and opposing team, as a part of the preliminaries.
- Food Wars (2010, Travel Channel) / Food Feuds (2010, Food Network)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Local restaurants with the same signature dish go head to head to see who's version is better.
- Implementation: Three main differences: The hosts ("Feuds" boasts Iron Chef Michael Symon, "Wars" has stage actress Camille Ford), the judging (Symon does the judging on "Feuds", "Wars" has a panel of 2-4 judges) and the focus ("Wars" features the local culture the rival eateries. "Feuds" focuses on the cooking and ingredients)
- Auction Hunters (2010) / Storage Wars (2010) & Storage Hunters (2011)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality shows focused on auctioning off repossessed storage units.
- Implementation: The content of the shows are very similar, but the execution varies between them. Auction Hunters puts more emphasis on testing and appraising their finds, Storage Wars puts more focus on the four factions bidding and Storage Hunters keeps most of the show on the auction grounds unless something needs appraised
- Sons of Guns (2011) / American Guns (2011)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Somewhat eccentric and abrasive gun shop owners make equally eccentric BFGs Of The Week.
- Implementation: Oddly enough, both air on Discovery Channel simultaneously, just two nights apart. The main differences end up settling on the shop's own specialties and eccentricities, with American Guns capitalizing on its "Old West" theme and Sons of Guns being soaked in Louisiana flavor.
- Series/Whodunnit (2013) / Escape the Night (2017)
- Capsule Pitch Description: A Reality tv series In Witch a Man is Cursed to invite a number of pepole to solve a murder mystery while they get killed one by one.
- Implementation: Whodunnit is about solving the eliminated contestants murders with the least accurate guest being killed, while the Escape the the night Has the guest's solving the escape the room type puzzles's with the 2 worst fighting for the life in a elimination challenge.
- Human Weapon (2007) / Fight Quest (2007)
- Capsule Pitch Description: A reality TV series hosted by a professional MMA fighter and a "tough guy" who travel to foreign nations to train in their local martial art and compete against a local fighter at the end of an episode
- Implementation: The shows are almost identical, with no significant differences between them except that different they feature different hosts and experts.
- Operación Triunfo (2001, TVE) / Estudio de actores (2002, Antena 3)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Spanish reality TV shows set in a fully-functioning academy, Operación Triunfo for singers, Estudio de actores for actors.
- Implementation: Estudio de actores premiered two months after the end of the first season of Operación Triunfo, and the media were quick to note the similarities between both formats.
- Big Brother Brasil (2002, Globo) / A Fazenda (2009, Record)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Brazilian editions of reality TV show formats (Netherlands' Big Brother and Sweden's The Farm, respectively).
- Implementation: The City vs. the Country. While both are Musical Chairs Reality Shows, Big Brother Brasil's first editions consisted of a group of ordinary people confined in a house (though from 2020 onwards, each season has half the roster consisting of ordinary people and the other half consisting of celebrities), while A Fazenda consists of a group of celebrities confined in a farm (though it had a special season with ordinary people instead of celebrities as contestants in 2012). Each show has its own rules - for example, in Big Brother Brasil the audience votes on which contestant they want to be eliminated from the house, while in A Fazenda the audience votes on which contestant they want to continue on the farm (thus, the contestant that receives less votes is the one eliminated). While the shows aren't broadcasted simultaneously (Big Brother Brasil is broadcasted on the first months of each year, while A Fazenda is broadcasted on the last months of each year), there is a strong rivalry between them and between their respective producers, and they are frequently compared to each other every year by the viewers and by the media (ironically, some former Big Brother Brasil contestants end up participating in A Fazenda afterwards as well).
- House Of Ho (2020) / Bling Empire (2021)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Crazy Rich Asians-inspired reality shows on streaming services revolving around the lives of uber-wealthy Asian-Americans.
- Implementation: House Of Ho from HBO Max follows around a Houston-based Vietnamese-American family who made their massive fortune in investment banking, while Netflix's Bling Empire focuses on a group of super-rich Asian-American socialites (along with a non-wealthy friend of theirs) in Los Angeles.
- The Real Housewives of Dubai (2022) / Dubai Bling (2022)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Reality shows about the extravagant lives of the wealthy in Dubai by US-based platforms.
- Implementation: The Real Housewives of Dubai, unlike others that are set overseas, is not a Foreign Remake, but actually part of the American The Real Housewives franchise by Bravo, and it focuses on lives of the wealthy women residing in Dubai, while Dubai Bling by Netflix, focuses on the lives of a group of wealthy socialites living in Dubai.
