Mark Burnett In Talks To Launch New Production Venture

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Burnett is in talks to launch his next production venture following his departure from Amazon-owned MGM.

Deadline understands that Survivor and The Apprentice creator Burnett has been approached by various people about financing opportunities for a new production company/studio.

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One source said that in addition to speaking with traditional entertainment companies about a deal, Burnett has also spoken to people about less traditional routes including private equity firms.

It comes seven months after Burnett departed MGM, where he was Chairman of the company’s Worldwide Television Group, in the wake of Amazon’s $8.5B acquisition of the studio.

In November, Burnett said that he would continue to exec produce some of the “legacy” series that he was involved in including Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice.

MGM acquired a majority stake in Burnett’s One Three Media and LightWorkers Media companies in September 2014 before fully acquiring the companies the following year.

He became President of MGM Television and Digital Group in December 2015 and re-upped his deal in 2018 and became Chairman of the studio’s Worldwide Television Group.

Burnett oversaw both scripted and unscripted at the company, which is behind series such as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, FX’s Fargo, Netflix’s Addams Family series Wednesday and the Vikings franchise.

But Burnett is best known for his work in the unscripted realm. He relaunched his first ever show, Eco-Challenge, as World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, for Amazon in 2020, and produced boxing competition series The Contender for Epix as well as Steve Harvey’s Funderdome for ABC.

More recent series include Generation Gap, exec produced with Jimmy Kimmel, for ABC and Fox’s Beat Shazam.

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