Call it cable’s version of “The Hatfields and the McCoys” — including feudin’ brothers on competing reality shows.
Animal Planet has fired an opening salvo at History’s new series, “Mudcats” — a ripoff, Animal Planet says, of its most successful show, “Hillbilly Handfishin’.”
The similarities are hard to ignore. Like “Handfishin,’ ” which premiered to 1.5 million viewers last summer — an Animal Planet record — “Mudcats” also features a group of guys who “hand-fish” for catfish in Oklahoma.
And the star of “Mudcats” is Scooter Bivins — the brother of breakout “Handfishin’ ” headliner Skipper Bivins.
The reality dust-up was triggered when History announced a Thursday, Feb. 9 premiere for “Mudcats.” That, in turn, prompted Animal Planet to shift its schedule by airing three episodes of “Handfishin’ ” next Wednesday, Feb. 8 (two repeats followed by a new episode).
“It looks like History is fishing for hits where Animal Planet already has found them,” says Animal Planet president/GM Marjorie Kaplan. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
“We don’t generate programming ideas from a 29th-place network or any other network,” a History spokesperson sniffed.