In anticipation of the Mark Burnett/Steven Spielberg reality show On The Lot, it might be a good time to take a look at the stranglehold that Burnett has on reality television.  The perception, in some circles, is that Burnett star has been fading with some of his recent television series waning in popularity.  Clearly, this has been the case for a couple of his productions.  This week, NBC did not announce any future plans with The Apprentice.  The Donald's show may return to the air at some point, but ratings have been dwindling for some time.  Burnett's Rock Star: Supernova was more or less a failure in the ratings.  Not an epic flop by any means, but it still wasn't what CBS wanted it to be.

During the ever-growing summer TV season, however, Burnett will have three separate TV shows airing concurrently.  Not bad.  Regardless of what some might say about Burnett, his reign as reality TV king is far from over.

Burnett's On the Lot is the most highly anticipated, mostly because they've been airing promos for the show during American Idol.  That never hurts.  Also, it is a joint production with Steven Spielberg, who is the most famous name in cinema.  The reality show is American Idol for aspiring filmmakers.  You can never really predict how successful a show is going to be, but On the Lot feels like a slam dunk.

Burnett's other new summer show is Pirate Master, which, judging by the previews, looks like a more debaucherous, disingenuous version of Survivor involving contestants acting like pirates.  The details are still vague, but the show will premiere in Survivor's Thursday 8PM time slot at the end of the month.  Pirate Master seems more like a one-off summer event, rather than a long-running series but, again, you never know with reality TV.  One of Pirate Master's contestants is former Kansas City Chiefs running back Christian Okoye.  Just thought you'd like to know.

The third Burnett show on television this summer will be the continued existence of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader.  The show has done reasonably well, but prime time game shows tend to have a short shelf life.  It could burn out by the end of the summer if FOX isn't careful.

Are you excited for On the Lot?  How well do you think Pirate Master do?  Will we see season 2 for any of these shows?

-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer

(Image Courtesy of MSNBC)