Re: Destination Mir

From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Wed Sep 13 2000 - 11:46:36 MDT


hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> Jeff Davis forwards:
>
> Destination Mir will Launch on NBC
>
> Mark Burnett, producer of the hit show "Survivor", has sold the rights
> to his new show, "Destination Mir" to NBC for $40 million. The show
> will follow a group of 13-15 would-be cosmonauts as they train for
> a trip to the Mir space station. Each week, a contestant will be
> removed by Russian Space Officials until the final winner is launched
> into orbit on a special, live broadcast. Half of the money will go to
> MirCorp, to help cover the costs of the trip. As part of the deal,
> NBC has agreed to run an hour long, Burnett-produced show about Dennis
> Tito, the businessman who paid $20 million for the chance to fly on
> Mir next year. "Destination Mir" will air in late 2001, early 2002.
>
> Sounds interesting, but they need to come up with a better way of
> winnowing the field. Just having some faceless Russian bureaucrats tap
> a guy on the shoulder and send him outside won't work. Hmmm, maybe a
> Stalinesque approach... it's the middle of the night, the door is thrown
> open, our hapless hero throws up his hands against the light as storm
> troopers with attack guards hustle him out... and he's never seen again.

Even better, the losers get exiled to star in Survivor IV: Kamchatka Paradise
Lost.

>
> Seriously, the most interesting part of the Survivor show was the politics
> and strategy involved in seeing who would get voted off. Just having
> the space agency officials decide won't work. They need to come up with
> some fair but dramatically interesting way to kick people off.

I think they will probably have immunity challenge type competitions, and the
worst performers get bumped. They'll probably also broadcast the meetings of the
agency guys when they decide who to axe.



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