Mark Burnett is a man who not many will have heard of in the UK, unless they follow the TV industry that is. He’s the producer of such US hits as Survivor and The Apprentice (Broadcast also lists The Contender as a US “hit”. It was made in the US, but with the best will in the world, it certainly wasn’t a “hit”).
Broadcast magazine (no link as it’s all subscription only) has a front page story from last week in which he is quoted as saying that Britain’s TV industry needed to face up to the reality that producers “work for advertisers”.
This really needs more examination. Who watches television? The viewers. And they have a lot of choice – ever more choice as the years go by. If you make programmes for advertisers, you’re doing it completely the wrong way around. You’ve got to make something that viewers want to watch (and this viewer, does want to watch The Apprentice). But if advertisers come first, then you’re in danger of losing out to a competitor who puts the viewer first.
The Apprentice in the US has been over-exposed (they had an ill-fated sister show featuring Martha Stewart. And the main Donald Trump edition surely runs the risk of burnout with two sets of shows a season. Of course in the US Burnett is one of the biggest proponents of product placement – something he suggest the British producers of The Apprentice might be doing, and something Thames Talkback vehemently deny. Watching the US Apprentice can be likened to watching a sixty minutes branding exercise for the featured company that week. The Contender has the dubious distinction of being the show featuring more product placements than any other.
The Contender flopped.
I’ll leave Burnett to live in a world where the BBC doesn’t exist. I like it the way it is thanks.