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Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a British-American television producer. He is known for introducing reality television as a genre to the USA. He produced the USA version of the series Survivor and the Eco-Challenge. Survivor is the most watched summer series since Sonny and Cher. He has also produced both the US and UK versions of The Apprentice, The Restaurant, The Casino, Rock Star, Combat Missions, The Contender, Martha Stewart, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, and Pirate Master. He collaborated with Steven Spielberg on a FOX show titled On the Lot, which granted one out of 18 contestants an exclusive Hollywood deal with DreamWorks and Spielberg.[1] The show premiered in May 2007.
New series for Mark Burnett in 2008 include Amne$ia and My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad on NBC and Jingles on CBS.
Since 2001, Burnett has been nominated for 48 Emmy Awards and has won two.
In November of 2007 Burnett was elected into the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame.
Time Magazine included Burnett in their April 26, 2004 list "100: Our List of the Most Influential People in the World Today". [2]
[edit] Early life
Mark Burnett was born in London, United Kingdom, and was an only child. From 1978-1982 he served with the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland and the Falklands War[3]. In 1982, Burnett moved to Los Angeles, U.S., and for the next decade held a variety of jobs, including a nanny in Beverly Hills and selling t-shirts in Venice Beach.
For the first season of Survivor, Burnett was paid an estimated $10,455,000. He received a staggering $10 million alone from ad revenue and a $455,000 licensing fee. At the close of the first season it was agreed by Burnett and CBS CEO Les Moonves that Burnet would no longer participate in ad revenue sharing but would be given a per episode $1,000,000 license fee. Considering Survivor, on average, has around fifteen episodes, Burnett takes home close to $15,000,000 a season. Survivor is now in its 16th season, making Burnett a very wealthy individual with a net worth in the $300,000,000 - $400,000,000 range.[4]
[edit] TV career
| Program [5] |
Years |
Emmy Award? [6] |
| Eco-Challenge |
1995 - 2003 [7] |
1 nomination
- Outstanding Non-Fiction Program
|
| Survivor |
2000 - Present [8] |
2 wins
- Outstanding Non-Fiction Program
- Outstanding Sound Mixing For Non-Fiction Programming
31 nominations
|
| Combat Missions |
2002 [9] |
none |
| Are We There Yet? |
2003 |
none |
| Boarding House: North Shore |
2003 [10] |
none |
| The Restaurant |
2003 [11] |
none |
| Commando Nanny |
2004 |
none |
| The Casino |
2004 [12] |
none |
| The Apprentice |
2004 - Present |
|
| Rockstar |
2005 - 2006 |
|
| The Contender |
2005 - 2007 |
|
| Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? |
2007 - Present |
|
| Amne$ia |
2007 |
|
| Pirate Master |
2007 |
|
| On the Lot |
2007 |
|
| My Dad is Better than Your Dad |
2008 - Present |
|
[edit] References
[edit] External links
|
Eco-Challenge |
|
|
Utah (1995) · Main/New England (1995) · British Columbia (1996) · Australia (1997) · Morocco (1998) · Argentina (1999) · Sabah on the island of Borneo (2000) · New Zealand (2001) · Fiji (2002)
|
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