10 Huge TV Shows That Have Been Sued For Being Complete Rip-Offs

Lee Daniels and Danny Strong’s music industry drama Empire fast became Fox’s biggest series launch since Touch premièred in 2012, with the show reaching close to 18 million viewers by the season one finale. It is known for touching on taboo subjects – homosexuality in hip-hop, drugs, murder, even cannibalism – but is fast becoming notorious for the amount of lawsuits being filed against it.

A little record label out of the Bay Area named Empire Inc. got the legal ball rolling, claiming that the show's use of their name (or a big part of it, at least) has impacted upon their sales. Their asking figure of $8 million in damages has been rebuffed by Fox, however, who claim that the San Fran-based company is too obscure for their claims to be relevant. Ouch.

Next up to sue was Sophia Eggleston, a writer who claims to have met with producer Rita Miller regarding turning her memoirs about her time as a drug dealer into a TV show. Miller supposedly took the idea to Daniels, though Eggleston heard nothing more until Empire premièred and she saw a character named Cookie. According to the plaintiff, Cookie is based on her life, and she is asking for $300 million to make things right.

Daniels himself is also the subject of a defamation lawsuit which began after he came out in defence of Terence Howard. The Empire star came under fire after admitting to hitting his ex-wife in an interview with Rolling Stone. Daniels tweeted that Howard had done nothing that Sean Penn hasn’t done, though Penn (who was rumoured to have assaulted ex-wife Madonna, a claim the pop star has confirmed as false) reacted by suing for $10 million in damages.