KCRW's The Spin-Off: Producer Mark Burnett on Faith, Family and Facial Hair

On the latest edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, it's another bonus episode: This time, from a recent panel (at Realscreen West) I conducted with "Survivor"/"The Voice"/"The Bible" producer Mark Burnett. We talked about the state of reality TV, his reaction to TLC's Duggars mess, and how his faith plays a large role in what he does:

The plan was to have his wife and producing partner, Roma Downey, join us as well, but Downey was stuck at home, sick with laryngitis, so Burnett and Schneider chatted, just the two of them.

Burnett has an empire's worth of shows. He helped change the reality game in 2000 with Survivor, and 15 years later, that show is still going, along with Celebrity Apprentice, Shark Tank and his reality singing contest The Voice, which will continue even as its competitor American Idol soon goes off the air.

Burnett and Downey also work on scripted projects and they're both very religious -- which explains why they did the shows The Bible for the History Channel and more recently, AD on NBC.
For Burnett, his Christian religion is a driving force in how he runs his business and picks projects to pursue. Schneider asks Burnett about all of this and more, but when they first sat down, he had to address something right away: Burnett had shaved his beard, a distinctive part of his look for the past few years. But recently, he just reached a point where he needed to make a change.

Listen below!

KCRW's THE SPIN-OFF: Episode 23 (LISTEN NOW!)

We've been busy with The Spin-Off! For our next edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, Joe and I chat with Salon's Sonia Saraiya about the latest TV headlines:

Given that spring is traditionally the season of rebirth, on this episode of The Spin-off we talk about a couple of big TV reboots that have made news recently -- Full House! The X-Files! And Mr. Show...sort of. While there’s a creative, nostalgic appeal to re-doing these shows, there’s also a huge commercial interest at stake.

It sounds like David Lynch may have pulled out of Showtime’s reboot of Twin Peaks, but in the long run, this may just prove to be a negotiating tactic. We ask how much of the original cast and creators need to be involved in order to pull off a successful revival.

And by now you've heard Comedy Central has named a new Daily Show host in Trevor Noah. There’s been a lot of talk and backlash about his appointment, but we’ll use that as a jumping off point for a larger conversation about just what we’re looking for in a news show...and if that varies if you’re talking comedy news or "traditional" news.

How did we come to a place where we’re holding comedy TV hosts to higher standards than politicians? And it’s a sign of strange times when John Oliver flies to Russia to interview Edward Snowden for his HBO show and the next day, Diane Sawyer announces she also has a big upcoming interview...with Bruce Jenner.

Finally, Mark Burnett’s AD opened strong on NBC on Easter Sunday, but didn't do nearly as well as his show The Bible did on The History Channel. It’s just one example that proves networks can no longer assume they’ve automatically got a huge platform, but many of them are still operating that way.

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MIKE ON RADIO: Bantering About Harvey, Mark Burnett and Garcetti on KCRW's "The Business"

It's always fun driving over to Santa Monica and visiting the basement studios of KCRW to record a banter session for the station's Hollywood news show "The Business." This week, I sit down with Kim Masters to chat about a few things hitting the industry. This edition even manages to work in a cross-section of my two passions: TV and Los Angeles! Take a listen below. Here's the logline for this edition:

Kim Masters and Michael Schneider, LA Bureau Chief for TV Guide Magazine, banter about this week's top entertainment news stories. (John Horn is away.)

- Harvey Weinstein and Warner Bros are embroiled in a legal battle over the title of the film, The Butler. Is this another Weinstein publicity stunt?
- Mark Burnett and Roma Downey sell their sequel to their History channel miniseries, The Bible, to NBC. Is NBC getting sloppy seconds for a big price tag?
- Eric Garcetti, LA's new mayor, calls runaway production out of the city "an emergency" and announces plans to create a "Film Czar."