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NBC Signs Up To Broadcast "Destination Mir"
Fraser Cain writes: "Mark Burnett, producer of the hit show "Survivor," has sold the rights to his new show, "Destination Mir" to NBC for $40 million. The show will follow a group of 13-15 would-be cosmonauts as they train for a trip to the Mir space station."
I love this line from the article: "Each week, a contestant will be removed by Russian Space Officials until the final winner is launched into orbit on a special, live broadcast." I certainly hope the Russian Space Officials are gentle with both the runners up and the eventual winner.
Ship 7 people up to mir, force them to perform tasks in zero-G between puting out fires and sealing holes... whoever wins that week, gets to come home. Thats a real "Survivor"
Dirty Pirate Hooker
I did some searching around and found http://www.mirstation.com./news_news15. html It gives a more in-depth look at what the show hopes to do (other than draw ratings)
/. is a commercial entity. goto slashdot.com
The deal is, last week the producers offered the remaining 6 contestants $500k to walk out of the house; the contestant that left would be replaced by a buxom young blonde (seriously!) for the remainder of the show. None of the contestants took it, and were themselves outraged that all 6 are threatening to walk out of the house at the same time as to end the show and to split the grand prize 6 ways. CBS is of course furious if this happens, but many predict this might be the windfall for the 'real life' gameshows if networks try to intervien too much into them.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
I don't think Mir is much different from Skylab, which would have survived until today except that we put all of our eggs in the Shuttle basket and then had nothing to maintain its orbit after that solid-fuel firecracker did what firecrackers often do. Had Skylab survived, it might be just as nasty today :-)
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I'm glad that even in the misery that these shows seem destined to reap upon us, someone has figured out how to make a buck off those who fain dislike and secretly can't get enough of it.
Well at least the russians haven't parked their space station in the outback. I also heard a story about the russian and pens in space. Normal ballpoint pens don't work in space. American solution: Spend lots of money and develop pens that work in space. Russian solution: use pencils. For extra credit guess what a major part of the first mission to skylab was. Well I'll spare the suspense. It was to fix it. You see would couldn't even launch the damn thing without breaking it. Skylab only had three crews before we ran out of money and ultimately treated the aussies to a multimillion dollar fireworks show. I have no clue how many crews mir has had, except it is a damn sight more than three. Considering the harsh enviroment in which mir operates, it has lasted exceptionally well. BTW do you think it is an accident that of the three modules of the ISS currently in space that 2 were built by russians.
My Weblog
You will be greeted at Mir with: slow degeneration of your muscles, great tasting food, and fires in the living quarters. Great Prize.
Is to send 14 ppl up and cram them into Mir, and have them eliminated 1 by 1.
Now *that* would be entertainment......
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
So much for the *international* space effort.
...the subject will be forced to watch Survivor episodes and build himself a couple of robots for company....
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
As much as I want to go into space, even I have some hesitation about applying for this. I've been to Russia and built a couple of experiments that have flown on MIR, so I have some first hand observations about this. First, the Russians are in this for the money, period. When I went there as part of a Boeing experiment team, everything was about what could they do to soak more cash from us and they could care less about the flight. Secondly, their infrastructure is shot, particularly at the launch site. Third, they are totally unable to keep to a schedule - look at the Space Station, it's 2 years late from Russians having to delay their main part. Most importantly, this thing can't be declared safe. MIR is fifteen years old, it's had a fire and a major depresurization while US astronauts were aboard, either of which could have easily killed someone. Look at their recent sub disaster and TV station fire, too - they are just stretched too thin running old equipment with people that haven't been paid in far too long. It sounds romantic, but it's being pushed by people with NO spaceflight experience and little if any experience with the realities of Russia today. The Russians aren't going to raise a single flag as long as there's enough zeros on the end of the check. If this pulls thru, it's going to be luck more than anything....
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
For $40M NBC could have done 'Survivor' with more entertainment value, such as:
Championship Quarterbounce
John Madden vs. Dennis Miller, Who Can Ramble On Longest Without Accidentally Commenting on the Game
/. Effect: Contestants must keep servers from crashing
South-Of-The-Border Water Drinking Contest, be the last to get Moctezuma's Revenge
Silicon Valley Survivor: Snow Wall Street and keep your dotcom alive the longest without a viable product! :o)
Java Survivor: Write the most lines of code before finding API is documented wrong
TV Survivor: Watch TV the longest without raiding the fridge. (Time deducted for comatose periods)
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Are one of them going to insist on "zero-G" training in the nude on their birthdays????
-- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
What is it with this new fad? The Real World was interesting, at least the first two seasons. After that, everyone became used to it, and the novelty wore off, no matter how many extreme stereotypes they put into one room. Big Brother was the exact same. You stick extreme people from every side of the track into a house, and watch them.
What's this supposed to prove, that your family isn't the only dysfunctional household on the street?
Survivor was interesting. It was a novel approach, where people weren't tested on their ability to handle Suzie talking for 6 hours straight on the phone. They were tested for physical and mental endurance, and the cash prizes didn't hurt.
And now, Destination Mir, along the same lines of Survivor. I pray that this will be the LAST of this new fad. This show will only have two good episodes, guaranteed: the first, to get to know who all is there, and the last, to know who wins. The rest is just filler. And the fact that the space staff votes contestants off takes out the human factor of friendships/enemies.
IMO, it'll be hardly interesting. If you want to see what goes on when various people are put through training to get into physical shape, then join the Army. I really can't see a difference.
>Are you sure that's real?
So what if it *IS* true?
Fisher Space Pens sell for $7.99 per at the gift shop (last time I went to see a shuttle launch @ Kennedy Space Center... about two years ago).
I used to live in Florida. I lived there for more a decade. I know the habits of touisitis annoyingians quite well. I have no doubt in my mind at all that they've sold enough $7.99 Fisher Space pens to recoup a $2mil investment, and more.
It boggles the mind what a tourist will drop money on just to have an "official souvineer". SOMEBODY is *surely* making a healthy profit off those things; two-million dollar development cost or no...
"look maw!!! it's one of them thar ass-trough-nut pens!!! less get one for juinor sweetums nana pappy and the rest of the clan!!!"
And let's not even THINK of the mounds of Disney crap that the suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htourists will blow money on.
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
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I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
I don't know...It's a matter what you prefer. There are plenty of good shows on TV IMHO, just gotta flip around. Think: Law&Order, Family Guy, Simpsons, The West Wing, X-files (up to a point). There are also some decent new comedies appearing this fall. I agree, there is a lot of "crap", but eventually those types of shows will lose interest and it will fade to black (hehe...Metallica(C)(R)corp(inc)(Republic))
Hehe...If you want reliable news, stay with Slashdot!
Sig it.