Why work for Donald Trump when you can fly around the world with Richard Branson?
In a bid to out-trump Trump, whose reality series The Apprentice has hit the ratings jackpot for NBC, Fox has decided to woo its own megamogul and will team up with the colorful founder of the Virgin Group for a reality show titled Branson's Big Adventure, the network has confirmed.
"We're thrilled to be partners with the world's most dynamic businessman," Gail Berman, president of Fox Entertainment, announced today. "Richard Branson has managed to build an international corporation and untold wealth while maintaining his adventurous spirit, influencing pop culture and having a blast the whole time. He undoubtedly has many life lessons to share on this innovative series."
Branson, of course, is best known as the larger-than-life billionaire who owns Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records. But he has also made a name for himself as an avid thrill-seeker, thanks to such Jules Verne-esque stunts as attempting to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon.
Like The Apprentice, the new series will have a big-time CEO at the helm deciding who stays and who goes. But, according to the network, that's about all Branson's Big Adventure has in common.
Instead of giving various aspiring business executives random tasks to see if they can live up to the Don's standards and score a job in one of his various enterprises, Branson's show will get out of the office and into the Great Outdoors.
Branson's awfully Big Adventure centers on a group of young wannabe billionaires who jet to various international locales where they'll relive some of Branson's own business challenges and adventures.
At the end of each episode, the risk-taking British entrepreneur will select one contestant whose decision-making fails to impress, and that individual will be left behind on the tarmac as the group flies off to the next destination.
"This isn't about selling a glass of lemonade," added Mike Darnell, executive vice president of specials and alternative programming for the network. "In six weeks, these people will experience challenges and adventures beyond their wildest imagination. It's not about business acumen; for Branson, it's about finding that one extraordinary individual who has the right stuff to follow in his footsteps."
There has been no word yet on what the big payoff will be.
Among some of his most highly publicized stunts, Branson broke records in 1991 when his balloon crossed the Pacific from Japan to Canada. Throughout the rest of the decade, he embarked on a series of flights to try and circle the globe. Many of those attempts fell short due to bad weather (he was eventually bested by a Swiss team that became the first to do it in 1999).
Branson's partner in the previous Virgin Global Challenger balloon project, Steve Fossett, went on to become the first person to solo circumnavigate the globe by balloon. The two are now teaming up again to try another record-setting feat--a solo, nonstop flight around the world in less than 80 hours.
Branson was knighted in 1999 for his services to entrepreneurship.
While Fox gets in bed with Branson, NBC meanwhile is enjoying the fruits of Trump's labors so much that it has already ordered up a second season of The Apprentice and is even in talks for a third. In its first season, the business-minded reality series averaged 19.1 million viewers during its first three episodes.