Former business partner sues reality TV mogul Mark Burnett
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 | 11:49 AM ET
CBC News
Mark Burnett, who created Survivor, The Apprentice and Martha Stewart's daytime show, is being sued by longtime business partner Conrad Riggs. (Associated Press)A longtime business partner of reality TV guru Mark Burnett has filed a lawsuit against the mastermind behind programs like Survivor and The Apprentice.
Conrad Riggs filed a lawsuit against Burnett in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, alleging that he is owed more than $70 million US.
According to the lawsuit, Riggs claims that he helped produce more than a dozen of Burnett's TV projects — including the reality TV stalwart Survivor.
The suit contends that in February 2007, Burnett broke a longtime verbal agreement to pay Riggs 10 per cent of his profits and has evicted him from their shared offices.
"While Burnett deserves much of the creative credit, Riggs played a crucial role in the financial success of the enterprise," the lawsuit says.
The duo met in the late 1990s, when Burnett was trying to break into the U.S. TV industry and Riggs was a business executive at Walt Disney Co.
Burnett, an Emmy Award-winning British TV producer, was a key figure in making the reality genre a mainstay of North American television.
Aside from Survivor and several versions of The Apprentice, his credits have also included music competition Rock Star, game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? boxing competition The Contender, domestic doyenne Martha Stewart's daytime show Martha and Steven Spielberg's filmmaker contest On the Lot.
With files from the Associated Press
