Friday, October 3, 2014

What happens when you combine the creativity of Survivor's Mark Burnett and American Idol's Mike Darnell for a 'huge game show event'?

Can Hollywood's two biggest reality TV titans double their power or will they cancel each other out?

That's the question which lingers over the announcement that Mark Burnett, the man behind Survivor, and Mike Darnell, who steered American Idol to the top of the ratings, are teaming up.

The pair are working on a new quiz show with the working title 500 Questions.

Exact details of the format are still unclear, however US media reports suggest it is a "genius game show" in which contestants recur from show to show until they have correctly answered 500 questions.

Burnett described it as the first network game show "to combine what audiences love about serialised unscripted hits with a huge game show event. It has ongoing characters and huge stakes."

Though the two titans of the reality genre have very distinct portfolios of shows, it is not the first time they have collaborated.

Burnett and Darnell worked together on the 2007 game show Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.

Though Burnett is best known for Survivor, his credits also include The Apprentice, Shark Tank, The Contender, Rock Star and the US version of The Voice.

Similarly, Darnell's reputation is inextricably linked to the success of American Idol on the Fox network, though his body of work also includes Temptation Island, Joe Millionaire and So You Think You Can Dance.

Darnell left Fox and joined the US studio Warner Bros in 2013.

500 Questions is being developed by Warner Bros in partnership with Mark Burnett Productions.

The story Reality TV titans to join forces on new 'genius game show' 500 Questions first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

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