'Reality TV'- scene 1, take 27' , Evening Standard

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

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What do you do when your reality TV show isn't exciting enough? Simple - you just reshoot it. JAMES SILVER reports

THERE is reality TV and then there is faked reality TV. Survivor, ITV 's most important launch of the year, starts here on Monday.

Meanwhile, the US version of the show is facing accusations that it mocked up scenes in the desert-island docusoap.

The response? A straightforward, unapologetic admission.

"Let 's be clear, I reshot some scenes, including a river race, to make the show look better, " declares British-born Mark Burnett, executive producer of the CBS show. "I couldn 't give a shit what anyone says," he adds.

Burnett admits that some of Survivor 's set-pieces were reshot with "body-doubles "after the event, and then cut into the action. From his Californian home, he says:"I wanted to film the race from helicopters without cameramen in the shot. There has been no 'redoing of anything with the contestants that would change the reality of the show, including the arguing, the loving, the competitions.

"I wanted Survivor to look more like a film. But the outcome, the drama, is exactly the same. "

But why not be honest with viewers and acknowledge in the credits that ome scenes have been recreated?"But why would you put that in the credits?When was the last time you saw 'second unit helicopter shootings 'referred to in a programme 's credits? It wouldn't mean anything to the public. "

Burnett has made Charlie Parsons 's Survivor format an incredible success in the US. Parsons had been trying, unsuccessfully, to sell a show to America about castaways on an island. Then he met Burnett, a former paratrooper who fought in the Falklands, at a Hollywood party. Burnett struck a deal with the Big Breakfast creator for Survivor 's American TV rights and began to hawk the show around.

"Look, what I do is non-fiction drama, "continues Burnett, "and I 'm glad to see that label has begun to stick in the US trade magazines. We shoot a great deal of material then cut it down so that it 's very fast-paced like drama. That 's why we beat ER.

We use a lot of highly talented film-editors who come to us with a background in drama. "Ten days ago, 41 million Americans tuned in to watch the three-hour final show of Survivor II, in which Tina Wesson, a nurse from Tennessee, picked up $1 million. NBC 's ER and Friends were left trailing in the dust, as was ABC 's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?."

At its peak, the first series of Survivor which was shot, like the UK version, on location on an island off the coast of Borneo scored an extraordinary 52 million viewers, nearly a fifth of the population. Bill Carter, TV correspondent of The New York Times, says Burnett has "single-handedly rejuvenated CBS. It was known as the old-fogey network.

Before Survivor aired, the average age of their viewers was 54. They had no teenagers and few people under 35. But my kids witched on for Survivor. "

Among the sharp suits and fast-track graduates who comprise the television industry in America, 41-year-old Burnett has the unlikeliest of backgrounds.

He served as a soldier in Northern Ireland, before moving to California, where he worked as a nanny and sold clothing on Venice Beach at $2 an item.

His military training was crucial - he went on to create televised endurance competitions, a stepping stone before Survivor came into view.

Apart from the inevitable Survivor 3, scheduled to begin shooting in the summer, Burnett is currently negotiating with Nasa and the Russian Space Authority to make a series called Destination Space for NBC.

"We 'll train 10 would-be astronauts, "he says, "and blast the winner into space. There are all sorts of politics going on at the moment, but if it comes off, it will be very big indeed. "

(The Evening Standard, 16th May 2001)

Posted by James Silver - On Wednesday, May 16, 2001

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