I stumbled upon an old question that you (both sort of) answered,
#146815. I was hoping for your help with a problem I have.

We are working on a TV-show/series/program. For natural reasons we
want to be first with it and do not want anyone else, neither in this
nor any other country, to take the idea and make something like that
which we are doing and sell it. Before we show anything for anyone we
will have one program/episode/show/pilot ready.
What we want to protect is the "idea". If I have understood things
correctly, this can not be done. But how do other production studios
work? Big brother for example managed to be produced all over the
world. There are programs "like" it, but still no real copy cat that I
am aware of.

1: How do we best protect the "idea" in other countries? If someone
make a copy cat abroad with another name, can we claim the idea if we
were de facto first?

2: What hinders a TV-company to reject our pilot after they see it and
create something like that which we made, but without us?

3: What precautions could we take before showing it to anyone? Is
there anything we should do before we start shooting?

Depending on how you chose to answer the questions I might have follow up questions.

I have worked in television in the past and although I cannot answer
all of your question, I can tell you that it is impossible for you to
protect your idea entirely. There is nothing which could hault a
television funder from reading your treatment, rejecting it, and
making their own. You could request that whomever reads it signs a
non-disclosure, but most funders won't do that.

However, you can protect your ideas by copyright. The process is
fairly simple, but I would suggest an attorney familiar with copyright
law. The US Copyright Office can be found on the web at
http://www.copyright.gov/

Copyright protects your original work both in the country and
internationally. However, please note that "Copyright does not protect
ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may
express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your
description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea
itself as revealed in your written or artistic work." From
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

Speaking from experience, most indie producers have several projects
in the pipeline at any one time. This both assists them in obtaining a
market and also protects them from situations like you describe.

And the reason that Endemol had all the international rights to Big
Brother was because the property was known. There have been spin-offs
of Big Brother (take the recent WB Production, "The Surreal Life").

Thank you for your insightful comments hopewalker-ga! :)

Howdy,
 You are correct, copyright cannot be used to protect your idea.  The
only option you have is to have them sign a nondisclosure agreement. 
If they refuse then you are proceeding at your own peril.
 However, even if they do refuse, you generally dont have to worry too
much - the system generally sorts itself out; that is, if they did rip
you off then they would get such a bad reputation that nobody else
would go to them in the future.

Good luck!
Andrew