
One of the latest additions to the ever-growing reality TV landscape is “Strong,” a Sylvester Stallone-produced competition between teams of physical trainers and their trainees.
It debuted in April, much to the chagrin of a trainer named Robert Fletcher, who is now suing Sly, along with NBC, for allegedly stealing his idea.
According to TMZ, Robert claims he shopped the idea around as “America’ Next Great Trainer” in 2014, during which time he pitched it to Sly’s agent at William Morris Endeavors and to his publicist.
He maintains the premise of his show pitch involved having teams of male trainers and female trainees compete in different physical challenges, much (if not exactly) like the “Strong” setup.
Robert claims Sly and friends even snatched one of the trainers, Todd Durkin, who had signed up to participate in “ANGT” then cut off all communication with Robert in 2015 before suddenly resurfacing when he appeared in “Strong.” He’s suing Todd as well.
The would-be show creator is reportedly asking for at least $5 million in punitive damages plus an additional $2 million.
It’s been a big year for Sly, lawsuit-wise. In February, he was sued by a New Jersey man who claimed the former “Rocky” star and his writer-director pal Ryan Coogler had stolen the idea for “Creed” without compensating him.
In that suit, Jared Alexander told the court he came up with the idea for the movie and wrote a screenplay called, “Creed: Rocky Legacy.” According to EW, he even registered it with the Writers Guild of America and the U.S. Copyright Office back in 2010.
He said in the process of pitching studios on it, he reached out to Sly on Twitter but got no reply.
Sly was dealt another “Creed”-related blow at the Academy Awards in February when he lost the Best Supporting Actor Oscar many expected him to win to Mark Rylance.
As of June 11, Sly had not yet commented publicly on the “Strong” lawsuit.