Mark Burnett Biography

Mark Burnett is a British television producer who is the current Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. Burnett-produced TV series has been nominated for a total of 143 Emmys. He has personally won twelve Emmy Awards, five Producers Guild of America Awards, seven Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and six People’s Choice Awards.

As of late 2018, Burnett is the executive producer of six network television shows: Jamie Foxx’s Beat Shazam (FOX), Kevin Hart’s TKO (CBS), Shark Tank (ABC), Survivor (CBS), The Voice (NBC), and The World’s Best (CBS) with host James Corden and judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul, and Faith Hill.

Burnett is also the executive producer of the cable series Lucha Underground (The El Rey Network) and The Contender (EPIX). In 2017, Burnett had timeslot winning shows on six nights out of seven. Moreover, as Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television, he oversees scripted television shows including Condor, Fargo (FX), Get Shorty (EPIX), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), and Vikings.

Under Burnett’s leadership, MGM has expanded its cable TV business through the acquisitions of Evolution Media (e.g., Botched, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Real Housewives of Orange County) and Big Fish Entertainment (Live PD, Black Ink Crew).

Burnett additionally produced the faith-based series The Bible and A.D. The Bible Continues, as well as the feature films Son of God, Little Boy, Woodlawn, and Ben-Hur.

Mark Burnett Age

Mark Burnett is a British television producer who is the current Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. Burnett-produced TV series has been nominated for a total of 143 Emmys. He was born on 17 July 1960 (age 58 years), in London, United Kingdom. He is 58 years old as of 2018.

Mark Burnett Early life

Burnett was born on 17 July 1960 in London, the only child of Archie and Jean Burnett, both Ford Motors factory workers, and was raised in Dagenham, Essex.

His father was a Roman Catholic and his mother was a Presbyterian; it is not known in which denomination he was raised. Aged 17, he enlisted in the British Army and became a Section Commander in the Parachute Regiment.

From 1978 to 1982 he served with the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment in C Company and saw action during the Falklands War and Northern Ireland.

Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett Wife

Mark Burnett was previously married to Dianne J. Burnett. They have two sons from this relationship, James, and Cameron. The couple divorced in 2006. He started dating Roma Downey in January 2004.

The pair later married on 28 April 2007 in their Malibu home. His second marriage is going strong as there is no news regarding any extramarital affairs at present.

Mark Burnett Early career

In October 1982, Burnett emigrated to the United States, where his friend Nick Hill, who had emigrated from the UK earlier, was working as a nanny and chauffeur.

Hill knew of an open position for a live-in nanny with the Jaeger family in affluent Beverly Hills. Despite having no experience as a nanny, Burnett went on the interview.

The Jaegers, realizing the advantage of having a nanny and security at the same time, hired him. After a year of working for the Jaegers, he moved on to another family in Malibu, California, taking care of two boys for $250 a week. He was eventually given a position in the insurance office owned by Burt, the father of the two boys.

Two years later, Burnett rented a portion of a fence at Venice Beach in Los Angeles and sold T-shirts for $18 each during weekends. Realizing he made more money selling T-shirts, he left his insurance job.

 In 1991, Burnett, and four others joined a French adventure competition, the Raid Gauloises. Afterward, Burnett saw a business opportunity in holding similar competitions.

He purchased the format rights and brought a similar competition, Eco-Challenge, to America. Eco-Challenge launched Burnett’s career as a television producer.

Mark Burnett Productions

Burnett is best known for producing the hit reality show Survivor, which premiered in the summer of 2000 and was the most watched summer series since Sonny and Cher.

Survivor was named the Number 1 reality series of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2009.

In 2004, NBC premiered The Apprentice, a reality television series in which contestants competed for a job under real estate magnate Donald Trump. The Apprentice spawned numerous licensed international versions of the show.

Burnett has produced several other television franchises including: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Shark Tank, The Voice, Beat Shazam, and TKO: Total Knock Out. He has maintained a strong presence in award show franchises, having produced the MTV Movie Awards (2007–2011), the annual People’s Choice Awards (2010–2017), the Spike Video Game Awards (2011 & 2012) and 2011, 63rdPrimetime Emmy Awards.

Burnett has produced more than 3,200 hours of television programming which regularly airs in more than 70 countries.

Past shows include Celebrity Apprentice (NBC), Bully Beatdown, Combat Missions, The Contender, The Contender Asia, Expedition Africa, Expedition Impossible, How’d You Get So Rich?, Martha Stewart, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, On the Lot (a collaboration with Steven Spielberg), The Restaurant, Rock Star, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, Stars Earn Stripes, Starmaker, Toughest Cowboy, and Wedding Day.

As well as his ongoing productions, Burnett and his wife, actress Roma Downey, produced The Bible, a 10-hour History Channel drama based upon stories of the Bible.

The Bible became the No. 1 new series on cable TV in 2013 and was the No. 1 series in Canada, Spain, and Portugal. In total, with subsequent airings, The Bible was seen by more than 100 million viewers.

After the success of The Bible, Burnett and Downey started developing more faith-based scripted series. A.D. The Bible Continues premiered on NBC on Easter Sunday 2015, and The Dovekeepers miniseries aired on CBS in Spring 2015.

In September 2014, MGM acquired a 55 percent interest in One Three Media and LightWorkers Media. The two companies were consolidated into a new film and television company, United Artists Media Group which was then acquired fully by MGM in 2015.

In December 2015, Burnett was named the president of MGM Television and Digital Group, signing a five-year deal.

Burnett’s appointment was set up to occur simultaneously with the closing of MGM’s acquisition of the remaining 45 percent of Hearst’s, Burnett’s and Roma Downey‘s interests in United Artists Media Group (UAMG), which will be absorbed under the MGM Television Group umbrella.

MGM Television will now have numerous unscripted and scripted television shows airing on network and cable or in production including: The Voice (NBC); Survivor (CBS); Shark Tank (ABC); Beyond the Tank (ABC); Celebrity Apprentice (NBC); Fargo (FX);Vikings (HISTORY); Teen Wolf (MTV); 500 Questions (ABC); The People’s Choice Awards (CBS); LIGHT TV , Lucha Underground (El Rey Network), and America’s Greatest Makers (INTEL/Turner). In June 2018, MGM appointed Burnett at Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television.

Mark Burnett Net Worth