Why a Former Reality Show Contestant is Suing a Runnemede, NJ Auction House

A battle of ideas and whose came first is at the heart of a lawsuit between a former reality show contestant from Philly and a South Jersey auction house.

Remember Gervase Peterson? He was a 7th place contestant on the very first season of Survivor on CBS.

Now, Peterson is reportedly suing Goldin Auctions of Runnemede over a Netflix TV series called King of Collectibles: The Golden Touch.

The show follows Goldin Auction's Ken Goldin and Dave Amerman, as they buy and sell high-profile sports collectibles including baseball contracts signed by the likes of Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, according to Philadelphia Inquirer.

Peterson claims, back in 2019, HE and two business partners came up with the idea for a show about Goldin Auctions FIRST. Peterson, who grew up in Philly before rising to reality TV star fame in 2000, Richard Berger and Skye Dennis say they shopped around a version of King of Collectibles called The Goldin Boys and allege copyright infringement.

Reportedly, they knew nothing about King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch until they saw teases of the series coming to Netflix. Peterson, Berger, and Dennis feel, in a sense, left out in the cold, their role 'upended as creators', says their lawyer, Samuel Fineman.

The lawsuit against Netflix and Ken Goldin calls the two shows 'strikingly and substantially similar'.

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What do Peterson and his co-creators want? Credit for King of Collectibles, for the show to be removed from Netflix, for future seasons to be canceled, and unspecified amount monetary damages.

We'll have to wait and see who becomes the Survivor of this fight.