Since Big Brother has been one of the most successful reality TV shows for years, it has many fans that care about it. For example, there are Big Brother fans who care about things like ranking seasons, what happened to the first female winner, and who has found love in the house. With that in mind, a writer decided to write a book about Big Brother’s history.
When fans bought that book, they likely expected to learn about Big Brother’s many twists and what happened to Adam Jasinski. However, the book also contained shocking claims about Big Brother that resulted in CBS threatening to sue its writer.
CBS Threatened A Writer Over Shocking Claims In Their Big Brother Book
When most people think of CBS’ top reality shows, two shows come to mind, Survivor and Big Brother. Since both shows mean so much to the network, they need to do what they can to protect them from anything that could cause them to fail.
With that in mind, it would be a big deal if someone made claims about Big Brother that made the show look bad. Unfortunately for a writer named Brody Stuart-Verner, they learned exactly how important it is to CBS to protect the image of Big Brother.
When Brody wrote a book about the history of Big Brother, he likely didn’t anticipate what would happen next. CBS sent Brody a letter threatening to sue him over his book. “The Big Brother Bible: 25 Years of America’s Summertime Guilty Pleasure“.
In July 2024, Radar Online published an article about CBS’ reaction to Brody’s Big Brother book.
“The
Big Brother
Bible: 25 Years of America’s Summertime Guilty Pleasure” reached #3 on Amazon’s best-selling books about TV Shows list.
According to that article, the network sent Brody a cease-and-desist letter in response to his reporting about Big Brother.
Radar Online’s article about the letter that CBS sent to Brody revealed that the network was taking the book very seriously. After all, the outlet revealed that the letter contained an obvious threat.
Radar Online reported that Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs Andy Wong wrote in the letter about CBS considering their options to sue Brody.
“CBS is exploring its legal and other options due to your book being rife with inaccurate statements and unsubstantiated claims, some of which may be the basis for defamation and other claims against you.”
The legal letter from CBS went on to detail what Brody needed to do in order to avoid any further action from the network.
Big Brother
began airing on July 5, 2000.
After obtaining the letter and including an image of it in their article, Radar Online revealed CBS was demanding that Brody change his book.
“CBS hereby demands that you retract and correct all false and unsubstantiated statements in your book immediately and that you cease repeating and take down immediately all such false and unsubstantiated statements on social media.”
CBS’ letter then informed Brody that they would continue to monitor any claims he makes about Big Brother in public. “CBS will monitor your activity for any further reckless and unfounded statements as well as any further attempts to secure the participation of past series participants and production personnel without express consent from CBS and Big Brother.”
As for what Brody wrote, which clearly upset CBS, he made two specific and disturbing claims about Big Brother’s casting process.
First off, Brody claimed in “The Big Brother Bible: 25 Years of America’s Summertime Guilty Pleasure” that CBS “intentionally cast racists” for Big Brother. Secondly, Brody claimed in his book that CBS “categorically avoid casting transgender applicants” to Big Brother.
As the above quotes about threatened lawsuits make clear, CBS completely denied those accusations.
Throughout Big Brother history, the show has featured a surprisingly long list of scandalous players.
When considering Brody’s claims, it is worth pointing out that after Luke Valentine said something racist in the Big Brother house during the 2023 season. While that may back up Brody’s claims, Entertainment Weekly reported in August 2023 that Luke had been expelled from the Big Brother house based on that incident.
Brody Stuart-Verner Vowed Not To Back Down After CBS’ Lawsuit Threat
Considering how much money a network like CBS has access to, they tend to employ several high-power lawyers. For that reason, most people would instantly back down if CBS threatened to sue them.
In most cases, when someone backs down after a cease-and-desist letter is sent, observers don’t get any updates. Instead, the matter just disappears since the person threatening to sue got what they wanted.
In this case, however, Radar Online published an update on the situation in July 2024.
At that time, Brody Stuart-Verner spoke to Radar Online about CBS’ threat to sue him. Most notably, Brody told the outlet that he stands by “everything” that he wrote in his book. Brody then called out CBS for not specifying which claims in his book they were disputing.
“CBS’s lack of response, particularly when asked to specify which areas it disagrees with, speaks for itself.”
Brody told Radar Online that he wasn’t changing his book despite the lawsuit threat. Since then, it appears Brody has stuck to that and his book is still available for purchase on Amazon as of the time of this writing.