No contender, he’s the champ

This week, Mark Burnett will dash through Manhattan streets like a crazed “Survivor” contestant in the Outback, dividing his crammed schedule among three and possibly four TV networks.

The British-born adventurer turned reality-TV producer is scheduled to spend 90 minutes this morning in a downtown gym, scouting boxers for “The Contender,” the unscripted series he’s producing with Sylvester Stallone for NBC Universal. Then, in the afternoon, he’s expected to zip up to Radio City Music Hall, where he’ll tout that show, along with the second season of his smash hit “The Apprentice,” to advertisers at NBC’s glitzy rollout of fall shows. And don’t forget “The Casino,” his summer reality series for Fox; “Survivor,” his CBS hit entering its ninth cycle; and “Commando Nanny,” his first sitcom, a pilot at the WB Network.

And while Thursday night a charity group will heap praise on Burnett’s philanthropic efforts, he’s getting even more attention for his success in shaking up how TV shows are financed.

Clearly, Burnett, a self-styled Hollywood outsider whose resume includes a much-discussed stint as a British paratrooper in the Falklands War, is the TV producer of the moment, an Aaron Spelling for the early 21st century, even if he professes to be greatly annoyed by such talk.

He bristled last week when asked about his empowered status in Hollywood: “I’m just moving forward with my work.... I only care about what’s on the screen.”

That may be so, but Burnett’s runaway success has, in less than four years, made him the undisputed king of “reality” TV -- and flushed envy into the hearts of numerous rivals. His specialty consists of cleverly structured, competition-oriented shows beloved by audiences, especially the young adults prized by advertisers. Among their crowd-pleasing characteristics: the reality “villain” viewers love to hate (think Richard in the first “Survivor” and Omarosa in “The Apprentice”). And now Burnett is moving into scripted TV, which is to many reality producers what directing is to screenwriters, a longed-for but often unattainable goal.

“He’s passionate, he [has] a clear vision and he’s a great salesman,” said NBC Universal TV boss Jeff Zucker. “But more importantly, he’s one of the best storytellers in all of television. He brings more passion to any pitch than any other producer I’ve seen.”

Equally important, Burnett plays a leading role in changing the economics of the TV industry. He’s the best-known producer specializing in product and marketing “integration” -- the buzzword for convincing advertisers to pay extra money for product placements and other promotional goodies as well as the traditional 30-second ad spot. Thus “Survivor” host Jeff Probst has invited bedraggled contestants to refresh themselves on-air with a bag of Doritos and a can of Mountain Dew.

The stakes for such deals could not be higher, because the traditional economic model of network TV is strained to the breaking point, according to industry executives and ad buyers. Series costs keep growing even as networks continue to bleed audience share to cable. And advertisers are increasingly skeptical of arguments that broadcast TV deserves the highest ad rates because it still delivers relatively big audiences.

While network, cable and syndicated series are projected to fetch roughly $20 billion in advance ad sales this year, that figure is flat compared with last year’s -- and many buyers expect cable to get a larger share of the pie than in previous seasons. The paucity of network hits this season certainly hasn’t helped the broadcasters’ case.

“It does feel like there’s a little bit more pressure on the TV industry to develop hits” than in the past, said Tim Spengler, executive vice president and director of national broadcast at New York-based ad firm Initiative. “It’s only getting more intense.”

That’s why Burnett is so important: With “Survivor” and now “Apprentice,” he’s developed reality series that advertisers like almost as much as viewers do. And he’s taken to selling the ad packages that support them with his usual ferocity. “I found that I enjoyed that very much,” he said of the CBS deals. “My marketing skills and my visual storytelling brain help me to understand branding well.”

On another Burnett series, NBC’s “The Restaurant,” chef Rocco DeSpirito was seen tooling around in a Mitsubishi automobile and using his American Express card -- both thanks to sponsorship deals.

“The kind of shows Burnett does lend themselves to creative integration,” says Ben Silverman, chief executive of Reveille LLC and one of the executive producers of “The Restaurant.” Reveille, which partnered with the ad firm Magna Global, hired Burnett to produce the series that looks at kitchen life in an upscale New York eatery. Silverman says that products can be inserted into reality series in relatively unobtrusive ways, while in scripted shows such a placement “just feels false.”

Burnett may have outdone his own deal-making standards with “The Contender,” however. He and his partner, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, persuaded NBC not only to pay more than $2 million per episode, but also surrender some of its ad time -- the networks’ ads are typically among TV’s most expensive -- so that the producers can sell it themselves, presumably at a hefty profit. So far, Burnett and DreamWorks, are keeping mum about which advertisers might sign up.

Burnett is also hoping to shake up the world of boxing promotion by signing some of the best young fighters on “Contender.” It’s similar to the strategy hatched by British impresario Simon Fuller, whose “American Idol” showcases singers who are in many cases managed by Fuller’s company and then signed to recording deals that also give Fuller a cut.

When one executive remarked admiringly that “Contender” producers would end up managing the next Muhammad Ali, Burnett replied, “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

No wonder that some competitors snipe -- privately, of course -- that Burnett’s achievements are overblown by the media, that he’s relied on partners with lower profiles but more business savvy, that his brand of deal-making has been around for years. And, to be sure, not everything Burnett touches turns golden. “The Restaurant,” which wraps its second season next week, has seen disappointing ratings in its 10 p.m. Monday slot on NBC.

But for now, Burnett is on top. And “Commando Nanny” could make him a force to be reckoned with in scripted programming as well. The show is semiautobiographical; like protagonist Miles Ross, Burnett says, he arrived in California in 1982 with $600 and no formal education, landing a temporary gig as nanny in Beverly Hills.

“When I first interviewed for the job, the family looked at me like I was crazy,” Burnett said. “But you know how I convinced them to give it to me? I told them I could be a baby-sitter and a security guard.”

Burnett devised the idea for the show and pitched it to WB executives, although he hired a writer, David Flebotte of “8 Simple Rules” to craft the script.

“Clearly, the show is about my experiences. And like my other shows, I have a vision and I know how it’s going to feel and look.... I hope it gets picked up.”

Even if it doesn’t (the WB announces its schedule Tuesday), Burnett has plenty of projects to occupy his time. And there’s little chance that rejection will bruise his ego.

“I don’t really care about the television business,” he says. “It wouldn’t matter to me if my shows were distributed on BlackBerrys. I recognize that people are trusting me with a lot of money and valuable real estate on their networks. But I am bringing something to them too.”