But hey, network execs never said the trip to Mir had to be in space, did they?
In any case, NBC and executive producer Mark Burnett appear to be stuck with a $40 million space-camp reality show--and nowhere to host it. Despite initial plans for NBC to launch Destination Mir late next year, the Russian Cabinet decided Thursday to bring down the rickety, 14-year-old Mir space station in February, insisting the government can no longer afford to maintain it.
"Nothing can last for eternity, even the Mir," Russian space agency chief Yuri Koptev told reporters, warning that the space station is unsafe to keep in its current state.
It's hardly good news for NBC, or Burnett, the Survivor mastermind who planned to send a group of regular folks to Russian space camp and compete for a chance to shoot into space and rendezvous with Mir.
Now, some folks at the network have jokingly renamed the project, Destination...Somewhere. And unless Burnett decides to make Destination Mir an undersea expedition, he'll most likely have to find a new way to get his mission accomplished.
With Burnett currently in Australia for Survivor: The Australian Outback, NBC on Friday simply reaffirmed its support for the producer--and perhaps its faith in his ability to pull off small miracles.
"There are many complicated issues involved with this project," the network said in an (under)statement. "We remain enthusiastic about it and have faith that producer Mark Burnett and his team can execute an exciting program."
NBC agreed to pay nearly $40 million for rights to the series, $20 million of which was earmarked for MirCorp, a Netherlands-based company that had agreed to lease the station and pay for its continued operation. But Russian officials said MirCorp hasn't met all its financial commitments, forcing the cash-strapped government to continue forking out money for Mir. This comes at a time when Russia also is being pressured by NASA and others to focus its attention on the new International Space Station.
So the Russian Cabinet approved a plan to crash the Mir into the Pacific Ocean--900 to 1,200 miles east of Australia--on February 27 or 28. Officials say they're also canceling a scheduled trip by Dennis Tito, an American businessman who paid MirCorp $1 million for his own trip to the station.
For its part, MirCorp released a statement this week saying, well, not a whole lot: "MirCorp is aware of a Russian Space Agency statement on the possible deorbiting of the Mir Space Station in February. MirCorp is awaiting official notification on the future of Mir, and will provide more details when available."
No word on whether NBC is getting any of its money back from MirCorp if the station comes down.
Even if Mir did remain aloft, Russian officials weren't upbeat about the station's current state of repair. Koptev said it would require more tests and procedures. But, he said, "Any of Mir's systems may now fail."
"We cannot continue this game...which I call Russian roulette," he added. "We simply don't have the right to do that, because we are a government agency responsible for the safety of Mir."
Still, Burnett recently voiced his confidence in his own space-camp TV series, if not necessarily in Mir. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Burnett said he was "90 percent sure that Mir will be available to us." And even if it wasn't, he said, "We have options."
One option would include testing a Russian agreement that would allow previous contracts for Mir to be honored at the new International Space Station. But he acknowledged that "that's probably an outside chance."
And if there is no space station available at all, he said, "I'll just rename the show Destination: Space, and we'll send somebody up to go around the Earth 50 times."
If that doesn't work, maybe Burnett can charter a glass-bottom boat to the Pacific Ocean in February--to get a glimpse of what might have been.