Mark Burnett, Chairman of MGM’s Worldwide Television Group, is exiting after the company’s $8.5B acquisition by Amazon.

Burnett is leaving the company and will return to “independently creating and innovating” but will continue to oversee his legacy series, which include Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice.

He became President of MGM Television and Digital Group in December 2015 and re-upped his deal in 2018 and became Chairman of the studio’s Worldwide Television Group.

Burnett has overseen both scripted and unscripted at the company, which is behind series such as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, FX’s Fargo, Netflix’s Addams Family series Wednesday and the Vikings franchise.

He hasn’t overseen a great number of new hits, relaunching his first ever show, Eco-Challenge, as World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, for Amazon in 2020 but it only aired one season, as well as boxing competition series The Contender for Epix, and Steve Harvey’s Funderdome for ABC.

We’ve innovated new shows and maintained our legacy hits with one of the highest renewal rates in global television

It takes great teams of talented people to produce more than 3,200 total hours of television including long-running hits like Survivor, The Voice and Shark Tank and innovative scripted series like The Bible, which together have garnered 143 EMMY nominations. 

In 2014 I sold a majority of my companies to MGM and came to this storied, 100 year-old studio as President  of Television

Later I sold the rest of my companies for MGM stock and became Chairman of MGM Global Television because I believed in the value of MGM.  

I had a clear strategic vision to build and grow MGM’s television division with my dynamic team, which included buying great companies like Evolution and Big Fish, adding international scripted and unscripted teams, and starting a documentaries unit.  We took calibrated risks and hired great people – and the business grew

That growth was critical to MGM’s future, because MGM needed to maximize its value in order to attract a global streaming partner and be ready for its next 100 years

As I step away from day to day management and back into independently creating and innovating,  I will continue to oversee my legacy series and be available to all of you and to Amazon for guidance and support. 

I wanted to follow up by thanking him for his countless contributions to our success and, on a personal level, for his partnership and counsel throughout the integration. I know you’ll all agree that he is one of the most innovative, creative, and prolific television producers in our industry, and we have been extraordinarily fortunate to have him on our team

I am incredibly proud of the outstanding television and film content that we produce, and look forward to 2023 and beyond, when as a fully integrated team we continue to build on this legacy