Survivor creator Mark Burnett has announced his next show, “Pirate Master.” Cribbing heavily from the Survivor template, Pirate Master will place 16 “modern-day pirates” (read: contestants) on a 179-foot square-rigged barque that will sail the seas around Dominica in the Caribbean, searching for real gold and voting out other contestants who will be set adrift. It’s sure to be full of cornball jokes and references, but so is Survivor, and it rarely gets in the way of the real draw: duplicity.

Each week, the pirates will embark on extraordinary expeditions where they will decipher clues along the way in search of missing treasure. Gold coins — real money which the pirates may take with them beyond the show — will be awarded after each expedition, but only to some. The gold will play a key role as pirates strike deals with each other or plead for long-term security. In addition to claiming the lion’s share of the week’s riches, one pirate will become the captain of the ship and will assign roles and chores to the remaining crew members, setting the tone for either law and order or betrayal and sabotage, which could lead to mutiny by the crew.

I remain an unabashed fan of competitive reality television, from American Idol to Top Chef, but I question the need for a whole new series on this one. They should have just retooled the next season of Survivor and set it on a ship, as the show is getting pretty stale after 14 seasons. (Although to Burnett’s credit, they do try and mix up the rules from season to season.)

And because I am legally bound by the code of the high internet to ask: In which episode will the pirate-contestants fight off ninja?

Press Release [TheFutonCritic.com]

(Photo: Travis Crawford)