‘Survivor’ guru turns to martial arts

HOLLYWOOD (Variety), Feb. 22 — “Survivor” supremo Mark Burnett is gearing up to create a martial arts reality franchise, and will begin pitching the project to broadcast and cable outlets in the next few weeks. Still in early development, the series will be built around an “Enter the Dragon”-style competition to find “the toughest man in the world,” said Eric Bischoff, who will serve as an executive producer.

THE COMPETITION — which would incorporate sports such as kung fu, judo, karate and boxing — would be held at various far-flung locales. Burnett will translate the storytelling techniques used in “Survivor” to the new project, mixing in personal stories about the athletes with competition footage. Contestants will be eliminated on a weekly basis, leading to a finale to crown a martial arts champ.
Unlike in the WWF, participants will all be real athletes, with the competition unscripted.
“This arena blends the best elements of unscripted adventure programming — suspense and thought-provoking personal drama — with mind-blowing, fast-paced action and adventure,” Burnett said. “I see this as a contest of epic scale where it is as much about the rich characters as it is about who wins.”