Mark Burnett is a boy from Dagenham who now lives in Los Angeles and can lay a fair claim to being the most successful TV producer in the world. His name appears at the end of The Apprentice and The Voice over here, two shows he brought over from the US. Over there, he’s also responsible for the mega-rating reality show Survivor. Yet he had never made a drama series, so when the time came, in 2011, he sensibly opted for a minor literary adaptation: The Bible.
“We’re a Christian family. [He produces in tandem with his wife the actress Roma Downey.] Some people call it intuition, some people call it a calling from God. We think it’s a calling, and it came to us at a time a few years ago when mine and Roma’s careers were going very well. We had more number one shows than ever. We realised if we were ever going to get a Bible series made it was off the back of that success. Most people hearing there’s going to be ten hours on the Bible in prime time thought there’s no way this works. We believed that was incorrect and there’d be a huge viewing audience.”
Whatever you think of Burnett’s vaulting ambition, it’s impossible to argue with his results. The Bible, a visually stunning, epic adaption of a selection of the major stories from Genesis to Revelation, was the number one cable series this year in America. The opening episode was seen by 13.1 million viewers, the highest 2013 figure for a cable channel.
Burnett simply doesn’t seem to be able to make TV that people don’t watch in their droves, yet he admits that even with some of the totems of reality television, not to mention countless millions, behind him, he wanted to make something he might be proud to show his grandchildren.
“We were very aware that our shows like The Apprentice come and go. But with The Bible we fully believed people would be watching it in 30 years. It’s much more meaningful. This is certainly the most important thing I’ve ever done.”
It’s endearing to think of Burnett suffering a crisis of faith and therefore trying to switch from trashy ephemera to something with lasting significance. On the other hand, you might say that he has merely identified an untapped market – churchgoers – and given them what they wanted.
“I’ve thought about this a lot. At first, we didn’t know ourselves whether to believe the conventional wisdom that you’re only going to get churchgoers to watch it. But the viewership went way beyond that: it was active churchgoers, people who were lapsed and even people who didn’t know about it [the Bible] at all. Rick Warren, who’s a pastor in America, did 3,000 baptisms as a result of The Bible series. At book stores in America they said they couldn’t believe how many people were coming in and buying Bibles.”
You can see why Burnett, 53, has elevated himself from a nanny – his first job when he landed up in Beverly Hills in 1982 fresh out of the Parachute Regiment – to an American TV kingpin: he is buoyant and incorrigible, the kind of Essex boy who might win The Apprentice if he hadn’t created it. “In terms of business I don’t even hear the word no. I just see the next opportunity,” he says at one point.
“There is no formula to creating hit shows. If there were, I’d have had a lot more successes. You just don't know. The one thing I do have is instinct.”
He says that that instinct came in part from being weaned on a diet of classic British television – “Growing up watching great TV made me know what’s funny and cool” - and in part from what he did next.
“I learned a lot from my time in the Parachute Regiment. We were trained to parachute in with way less than we needed, to know that the plans would change – and still get the job done. So that has allowed me in the TV business to say if it feels right, jump in. And figure it out as you go.”
He also claims the popular touch, casting himself as “a working class guy from Dagenham; I could easily get on the 139 bus.” Yet he says that is also one reason he emigrated to the US in the first place.
“I don’t think I would have had the opportunity in England. In America it’s really about can you explain your idea and seem like you’re someone worth betting on. They don’t really care who your dad was, where you went to school. Your results are what counts. In England, at least when I left, certain doors were definitely closed to me with this accent from Dagenham.”
You can see the link between his own experience and The Apprentice, which Burnett sees as a paean to meritocracy.
“I don’t think The Apprentice is cruel. No one’s making them sign up for it. The Apprentice illustrates the rough and tumble of business and trying to get a job. And dealing with a tough boss, in the shape of Alan Sugar. It’s done so well because people realise there’s no free pass. In the end it’s never the ruthless player who wins. It’s usually the best one.”