Casa dos Artistas

In 2000, Endemol offered SBT owner Grupo Silvio Santos the rights to produce a local version of the Dutch reality series Big Brother, but the network declined due to its cost. The rights would later be acquired by Rede Globo: the network originally intended to hold the rights as a defensive measure only, and did not actually plan to produce a Brazilian version of Big Brother.^[1][2]

Upon declining the offer, SBT signed an agreement with Endemol agreeing not to use proprietary information surrounding the Big Brother format that had been provided to them during the negotiation process.^[2] Nevertheless, SBT began to develop its own, similar series, which would feature celebrities as contestants. The series was developed in secret, with only network owner and president Silvio Santos and several other SBT executives aware of its existence, and the cast of celebrity contestants required to sign non-disclosure agreements during filming.^[1][3] In October 2001, SBT began airing promos teasing a new series that would premiere on 28 October, without revealing its title; on the premiere date, the series was revealed to be Casa dos Artistas. The series premiere was scheduled against Globo's long-running Sunday-evening news magazine Fantástico, notably beating it 35 to 25 in average ratings points.^[1][3]

Globo obtained an injunction halting the broadcast of the first season for two days, accusing it of having plagiarized Big Brother. The program was allowed to continue airing afterward.^[4][3] The success of Casa dos Artistas motivated Globo to go on with a Brazilian version of Big Brother, with the first season of Big Brother Brasil airing over the summer in January 2002; Globo would contrast the program's premise over Casa by emphasizing its largely-civilian cast rather than celebrities.^[2][5] In 2015, the Superior Court of Justice ruled in favour of Rede Globo and Endemol, ordering SBT to pay R$18 million.^[2]