Mark Burnett (born July 17, 1960) is a British television producer. He is known for introducing competition based reality television as a genre to the United States.

Career

Mark Burnett has produced the U.S. version of the series Survivor and the Eco-Challenge. Survivor is the most watched summer series since Sonny and Cher and in June 2009, was featured in Entertainment Weekly as the #1 reality series of all time.www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20282498_20282501_20282998_19,00.html He has also produced both the U.S. and UK versions of The Apprentice, and helped produce the Irish version 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.On The Lot: Official Fox Site The show premiered in May 2007. In 2008, new series for Mark Burnett included Amne$ia and My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad on NBC and Jingles on CBS. For the past three years, Burnett has also served as the executive producer for the 2007, 2008, and 2009, MTV Movie Awards.

New series for Burnett in 2009 include Shark Tank on ABC, Bully Beatdown and Starmaker on MTV, How'd You Get So Rich? on TV Land, Expedition Africa on The History Channel, Toughest Cowboy on Spike, and Wedding Day on TNT. Burnett is also currently in production on new pilots for both Fox and CBS.