Ahoy, maties. CBS has finally announced a launch date for their latest Mark Burnett-produced reality series, Pirate Master, which will set sail this summer on Thursday, May 31st at 8 pm.Personally, I can't wait for this series, a pitch perfect blend of pirate lore, high camp, and brutal elimination-style reality television. (A preview can be found here.)
"Pirate Master breaks new ground in that it's the collision of fantasy and reality," explained creator and executive producer Mark Burnett. "This is a show where, in true pirate fashion, anything can happen with a group of people that live by their own set of rules and usually break them. It's adventure, excitement and loads of treasure. Anyone who ever wanted to be a pirate will love this show!"
The series will follow 16 Americans as they search for $1 million worth of buried treasure on the high seas, around the Caribbean island of Dominica. Players will live and travel as pirates on a massive 179-foot ship and embarking each week on expeditions were they will be forced to decipher clues in order to locate actual gold coins, which they will get to keep after the season wraps... or which they can use to make deals or bribe other players.
Like Survivor, Pirate Master will feature its own version of tribal council: Pirate's Court, where each week three selected pirates (each given a black mark by the captain) will plead their cases before one is cut adrift and eliminated from the competition. Or the captain himself could find himself the victim of a mutiny. Ultimately, this is a reality television show where anything really can happen and anyone could go home at any time.
The scheduling for Pirate Master will have the new skein take over the Thursdays at 8 pm timeslot vacated by Survivor when the venerable reality series goes on hiatus this summer. Not coincidentally, the launch date will mean that Pirate Master is premiering exactly seven years to the day that Survivor first showed up on the airwaves, before immunity idols, voting someone off the island, and a naked Richard Hatch were household terms.
Comments
Writers were more creative in the '70s and '80s! I predict in a year or two, the only shows will be CSI spin-offs, serial dramas that'll be canceled prematurely, reality shows, game shows, and reality-based game shows. And, I hope, The Office.
It's going to be awesome.
Or, awesomely bad.
Or, just bad.
But I will be watching!
And why not? Hasn't every little boy and girl wondered what it would be like to live out on the sea and search for buried treasure? Stefan, I understand your reservations but I think that this show is much more creative than something like Temptation Island or most of the other reality shows on TV now. I think it's at least worth giving a chance!
My complaint is more general--that TV writing has degenerated into, well, not writing anything. Nowadays, more programs are game and reality shows that don't require creative writing--or at least not as much effort as is required by shows like Veronica Mars and The Office. And even then we see the networks dumb them down by forcing shorter story arcs (VM, Angel, etc.), damaging the program and insulting the viewers.
I haven't heard of this show before but i will definitely be tuning in as long as it doesn't conflict with something better.
Sounds like pure crap, but that can be a fun way to waste the summer. So I'm looking forward to it.