Bye Bye Pirates

My inbox is overflowing (yet again) and we have had an eventful week - already, and it's only Wednesday: A certain well-known actress has been arrested, NBC has been sued, and now this: PIRATE MASTER has been CANCELLED by CBS!

Are you exhausted yet? Some may say the week is off to a bad start - I say, business and profits have never been better...If you are a lawyer.

No, No Jericho

This past Monday, CBS execs announced the formal 'removal' of Pirate Master (Mark Burnett) to open the schedule for Big Brother 8 positioning. The show had originally debuted last May (Although only a few months prior to most - considered eons in TV time), and to many the show was considered to be "Survivor on a boat".

At one point, the original intention of the network coincided with that impression as statements to the press, "16 modern-day pirates as they embark on a high seas adventure around the Caribbean island of Dominica in search of hidden treasure that will total $1 million,” sounded strangely familiar - as if the program had already existed.

Betrayal, Sabotage, and Mutiny...

You may recall in my previous post, I referred to the program as "The Apprentice on a Boat" all of the elements and format similarities appeared the same - A head pirate assigning tasks to lesser pirates who are vying to find the treasure without being set adrift, to get a job as a master pirate? Right, if that description does not sound like The Apprentice, I have no further comment.

If you like The Apprentice, you will love this show

Speaking of comments, when asked last week, Mark Burnett said, "I tried - I don't understand why it's not working. All I can do is deliver high-quality shows."

Maybe or maybe not...The show had abysmal ratings with just over 4.6 million viewers, a decline from 7 million viewers who watched the premiere episode on May 31, 2007, according to industry reports. I did like the show The Apprentice at one time - so, the question becomes "What went wrong?"

The reality is this...Nobody knows anything and quite frankly, it is always tough to predict the consciousness of the mainstream - what works one day, may not work another...Every show eventually has to walk the plank sooner or later, and as self-contained mini-dramas, Reality Shows are certainly no exception to the rule.

Off The Air and Into the Stream

The remaining 5 episodes (Yes, there are that many) had been finished months prior and will now be streaming online every Tuesday on the CBS.com website.