NBC May Lose Grip on Reality Race
November 20 -- NBC's struggle to break into the hot reality-TV field continues.
Last month, the network dropped its plans to air twisted dating-game series Chains of Love due to creative differences with the show's producer, Dutch-based Endemol Entertainment. Endemol, of course, is the conglomerate that made a fortune by selling its love-it-or-hate-it Big Brother show to networks worldwide.
NBC also aimed to break into the reality race, where peacock net rivals CBS (Survivor) and ABC (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) saw ratings victory, by paying $40 million for an intergalactic competition on the Russian space station Mir.
That goal became a distant one with Friday's announcement that Russia will dump its 14-year-old orbiting station in the Pacific Ocean in February.
Despite the news, NBC isn't giving up hope. "There are many complicated issues involved with this project," NBC spokeswoman Diane Herzog told Reuters. "We remain enthusiastic about it and have faith that [Survivor] producer Mark Burnett [who is launching the show for NBC] and his team can execute an exciting program."
The space-reality series, called Destination Mir, planned to follow a group of contestants as they train in a Russian cosmonaut boot camp over 13 to 15 episodes, culminating with a live broadcast in which a winner is picked — and then sent up to Mir.
MirCorp, the company set up to commercially develop Mir with private cash and sell trips into space for ordinary folk, would also not admit the countdown to Mir's destruction was in its final phase. MirCorp's president, Jeffrey Manber, was in New York Friday still talking with potential investors to keep the station aloft.
As for Chains, Variety reports that UPN is now negotiating to pick up the controversial show, which would spotlight four men or women shackled to one member of the opposite sex for several days, until only two potential "lovebirds" are left.
UPN is expected to air six one-hour episodes of Chains as specials, probably in March or April. If they're successful, the network could turn Chains into a regular series.
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