Reality check: Mark Burnett’s kingdom

By Monte Burke

updated 6:14 p.m. ET June 14, 2007

On a Spring morning in Los Angeles Mark Burnett — the most prolific, most successful producer of reality TV since the genre overtook television nearly a decade ago — stifles a yawn and pores over the overnight ratings for the premiere of his latest entry, the heavily promoted Fox show "On the Lot." The window blinds in his office are drawn against the dazzling southern California sun, and Burnett's outfit — jeans, black shirt, black pinstriped blazer — is fittingly somber, for the numbers are deadly.

The show, coproduced by the powerful Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and featuring would-be filmmakers competing for a million-dollar movie deal — drew all of 7.6 million viewers and lost 70 percent of the audience of its lead-in, American Idol, the most-watched series on TV. On the Lot continues to struggle: A week after its debut the show had only 4 million viewers, and Fox recently trimmed it from a planned twice-weekly run to just once a week.

Burnett, 46, made himself famous — and fabulously wealthy — producing CBS's "Survivor," one of the most popular reality shows in television history, and NBC's "The Apprentice," a top-ranked show in its first two years, which spawned Donald Trump's condemnation catchphrase: "You're fired!" But "On the Lot" is the latest in a string of disappointments for Burnett. "The Contender" (6.2 million viewers), "The Casino" (4.4 million) and "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" (6.5 million) all got yanked from network television after a single season.

This season a second Burnett series, "Pirate Master" on CBS, debuted unspectacularly, in part because it aired in the same time slot as a third Burnett rookie show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" That last entry — a quiz show rather than a video vérité series in the "Survivor" vein — is a much-needed hit for Burnett. It premiered in February and drew a startling 26 million viewers, the highest-rated premiere on network TV in eight years.

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Even his powerhouses, however, are aging and ailing. "Survivor," though still a top 20 show, now gets half the 30 million viewers of its peak in 2001, despite resorting to publicity stunts (last year Burnett split up the tribes by race). "The Apprentice," at 21 million viewers in 2004, now draws 7 million, hurt by a move to Sunday nights at 10 p.m. "Even I'm asleep by then," says Trump. "It's tough when you don't want to watch yourself on network TV."

But this is a business measured more by the number of successes than by the percentage of successes. Burnett's oeuvre: 11 network series in 7 years and a total 550 hours of often gripping reality programming. "On the Lot" met expectations "from a business perspective," he says. "Did you know there are 50 new shows this summer?" He adds: "I've been very fortunate. I've had 3 hits. Some producers never get one."

Now Burnett is moving beyond reality and into scripted series and films, as well as new kinds of programming created for the Internet. He started last year by producing "Gold Rush," a pop-culture trivia show that got promoted in on-air clues embedded in cbs shows. It "aired" online on AOL, attracting 11 million people in a seven-week run. A second season is set for the fall. Burnett also is working with the online site MySpace on "Independent," a political reality show in which MySpace users will set tasks for candidates and vote on a winner, who will get $1 million to run for office or fund a political cause.

"He's created something entirely new: an Internet/reality-show hybrid," says David Verklin, chief of ad buyer Carat Americas.

Burnett is also producing a feature film with New Line Cinema, based on the children's book series "The Alchemyst," and "Avery House," a new series in development for the Sci Fi Channel. He had tried three scripted pilots for the old wb network a few years ago, but none got picked up. "It's very hard to break into scripted TV. One in 20 shows makes it big. I think now I've got more experience in storytelling," he says.

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