Reality TV Updates

Pirate Master, premiering at 8 PM  tonight 5-31-07 on CBS

Hosted by Cameron Daddo and shot on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, near Venezuela, the show features 16 contestants who agree to live as if they’re 18th century pirates in search of a legendary buried treasure. To find it, they must battle nature, one another and a baffling set of pirate-map clues.

Devotees of Burnett’s first big reality project, the Eco-Challenge adventure race, will recognize wilderness expeditions and harrowing physical feats.

“There are a lot of waterfalls,” Burnett says, “and swimming down white-water rivers and diving. Some of the clues were at bottoms of rivers, weighted down. You had to dive under the rapids to retrieve them. Great stuff.”

Fans of Survivor may find something familiar in the pirate theme, which was used on an earlier edition of that show — although Burnett says he came up with this concept long before that.

And fans of Survivor and The Apprentice will not be surprised to find the would-be buccaneers forced to live in a haves-versus-have-nots situation, with an elected captain and his or her officers living large while the “crew” scarfs porridge and swabs decks.

“It sets up what would happen next,” Burnett says. “Are you going to listen to the captain, or will there be a mutiny? And there are rules for mutiny.”

And like in all reality shows, there’s a weekly elimination — in this case, as a result of a “Pirate’s Court.”

Among the contestants are a marina owner, a dive master, a music producer, a district attorney, a “scientist/Chippendale dancer,” an auto parts salesman, a smoke jumper, a glassblower and a fashion publicist. The most recognizable “pirate” may be former NFL player Christian Okoye, 45, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1987 to 1992.

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