Mark Burnett, Chairman of MGM’s Worldwide Television Group, is exiting after the company’s $8.5B acquisition by Amazon.
Burnett is leaving the company and will return to “independently creating and innovating” but will continue to oversee his legacy series, which include Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice.
Last week, Deadline revealed that the man behind The Apprentice, was weighing his options as the fold-up between Amazon and MGM gains pace.
More details about the overall structure between Amazon and MGM are expected soon with Prime Video and Studios boss Mike Hopkins saying staff will be “hearing more shortly” about the re-organization.
It comes eight years after he started his relationship with the studio; MGM acquired a majority stake in his 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.
It’s understood that Burnett’s current contract was up at the end of the year and there’s been rumors that he’s started talking to others about setting up a new production company.
Burnett has overseen 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, who is an exec producer of NBC’s The Voice, ABC’s Shark Tank and CBS’ Survivor, is best known for his work in the unscripted realm.
He hasn’t overseen a great number of new hits, relaunching his first ever show, Eco-Challenge, as World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, for Amazon in 2020 but it only aired one season, as well as boxing competition series The Contender for Epix, and Steve Harvey’s Funderdome for ABC.
He is currently exec producing Generation Gap, alongside Jimmy Kimmel, for ABC and Fox’s Beat Shazam.
Mark Burnett’s Note:
Mike Hopkins’s Note