If you ever find yourself talking to Mark Burnett about some of the TV shows he's produced in the US – Survivor, The Voice and The Celebrity Apprentice for example – you'd be advised not to call them reality shows.
"I hate the word 'reality'," Burnett said during his keynote speech at the MIPCOM conference in Cannes. "It's a journalistic made-up word. It's just non-fiction storytelling."
Burnett criticised suggestions that narrative television is on the decline thanks to the rise of non-fiction formats, but also hit out at producers and broadcasters who see the latter as a cheap alternative to drama.
"I don't want to make crappy shows, and make a lot of them and hope for the best," said Burnett. "If you're making, oh pick one, Survivor, we treated that as if we're making a $100m movie… It's narrative storytelling. It's emotional connection. It's not lazy producing."
Burnett also called for less backbiting in the television industry, saying he has cracked down on negativity within his firm One Three Media.
"We have in my company a 'No Asshole' policy," he said. "In this business, there's so much backtalking behind people's backs, and fakeness. A lot of people in this room should probably be ashamed of themselves. It's not the way I run my company."
One Three Media is moving into scripted drama. Burnett's next project is The Bible, a 10-hour scripted series due to air on US channel History in 2013. It will focus on stories from both the Old and New Testaments.
"I think it's the underpinning of the greatest storytelling in the history of the world," said Burnett.
"It's very likely to be the biggest thing I've worked on in my life, and seen by more people than all my other shows put together."
