MANILA, Philippines?Leaving people stranded on a deserted island, encouraging social manipulation for a million dollars, voting people off, firing prospective employees?it?s an intimidating resumé to say the least. Mark Burnett has, after all, made a fortune out of people?s fear of social rejection. Yet when the king of reality TV and cruel send-offs walks into the room, carrying a bottle filled with yellow liquid, he surprises all by speaking ? in a whisper.

?I hope you don?t mind if I drink my own pee,? Mark Burnett jokes in a sandpapery voice, ?it?s very healthy.? He had been screaming for hours, he shares, coaching his kids soccer before jetting to Singapore for the ?Contender Asia? media launch. ?I think it?s very sexy,? he whispers with a bright smile. And that is just about where the ostensible meekness ends, for his very presence and magnitude of words turns him at once into the epicenter.

His own life story is itself an extraordinary tale with unexpected twists. He once served in the British Army in Northern Ireland, and fought in the Falklands War. In the early 80s, en route to Central America to do a contract security job, he stopped over in Los Angeles and ended up walking out of the airport. He survived by taking jobs as a nanny in Beverly Hills, and as a T-shirt vendor in Venice Beach. Certainly, if there was any person who could tell you a thing or two about surviving the real world, it?s Mark Burnett.

Mark?s relevance in the entertainment industry comes at a time when reality TV has become a double-edged spectacle, with some audiences regarding it as the diametric opposite of creatively scripted shows, and a breeding ground for camera whores. Mark Burnett offers a different perspective on the genre, one that?s based on philosophical and psychological truths about human nature. He alludes to the writings of Joseph Campbell and John Nash?s game theories when talking about creating non-fiction TV. ?There are universal truths that touch your soul,? he says. His mission is far from being a sadistic mastermind performing experiments on human lab rats, rather, it?s ?to tell good stories that touch people.?

In an exclusive interview in Singapore, Mark shares his thoughts on the compelling drama of real life, while unveiling his latest baby, ?Contender Asia.?

You seem to be focused on Asia lately. Do you have a fascination for the region?

I like Asia a lot. I?ve always had a good time in Asia. I produced my first show here in 1994, I produced ?Eco Challenge? in Sabah in 2000, then ?Survivor: Thailand? in 2002, and ?Survivor: China? in 2007. We were the first American TV show ever that shot everything entirely in mainland China. Some people might think it would be very difficult with the language barrier and culture, but I?m very Asian-centric in that I am a rule follower.

Your shows always deal with cutthroat competition. What is competition to you?

I like to win. I never met anybody who likes to lose! I?m competitive, I follow the rules, and I play to win. I don?t like people who play defensive games. I play like that in business, sports, adventure and television. I play to win, otherwise, there?s no point to play.

Is winning then the only point of your shows?

With my shows, it?s not about the winner at all! Sometimes the greatest hero in a story is the person who came last, but tried very hard. My priority in my television shows is storytelling. There are universal truths, universal beliefs. Stories of struggle, protagonists, antagonists, reluctant heroes. The mission is to tell good stories with good pace, good emphasis, and to touch people. If you look, even sports does this in its own kind of storytelling. Even the news has to touch you in some sort of way. It?s storytelling, going back to the days when people were still living in caves.

How do you tell a good story in unscripted shows?

In stories it?s about all things?drama, pathos, it?s stuff you know from when you were getting stories as a kid. You?ve heard of Joseph Campbell? With his ?Hero of a Thousand Faces." I?m reading a new story of his it?s called ?Bliss,? which is very important to me, about what is the storytelling that creates bliss, what creates emotions and anxiety. We all learn so much with these storytelling truths, from comedy, or drama or unscripted drama. It?s the same responsibility.

Just because it?s on television or it?s not scripted, doesn?t mean you take it easy or just hope for the best. To win in television or films is to make the best effort to tell the best stories. You look at Geoffrey Chaucer, or William Shakespeare, the stories are the same today! So much has happened in technology in the world, and yet human emotions are unchanged! We still have the fool, the protagonist, the antagonist, it is unchanged.

Do you look for people who fit into those archetypes?

In casting, it?s all about finding the right people. What I do in situational drama is creating a world where people will fit into the world. An example would be the Stanford prison experiments in the 60s. Some took the role of prisoners, some were the guards. Within one day, they turned into real prisoners and guards, and even the teacher who was giving the experiment thought he was a prison warden until he realized, oh my God what am I doing? So if you create a situation and people want to play, it becomes their reality.

Do you predict certain types of drama to happen?

You cannot predict in ?Survivor? or any reality program what would happen in the experiment because what they would tell you in a hotel room or casting location cannot be the same circumstances as the game. What you can predict is their A-type or leader qualities. And all these people cast on my shows are all A-type leaders. They?re so used to being dominant in their own peer groups but now they suddenly find themselves with fifteen other dominant leaders, and it?s a big wake-up call for them. Even the people who seem meek on these shows in their own peer groups are leaders.

So you are in effect doing an experiment on human nature?

All the time! ?Survivor? is a great example of that. Think about the core values of ?Survivor.? It relates to John Nash?s writings. He?s the subject of the movie ?Beautiful Mind.? One of the simple things he said is that when you have a number of companies in competition, some will gang up together to edge out the competitors. And of course that will narrow down in alliances, and eventually the big surprise for them is that when there is only two left, they turn on each other.

?Survivor,? a lot of it, is based upon Nash?s theories. In ?Survivor,? you can gang up and eliminate others. What makes ?Survivor? a beautiful game is that the million dollars is given to you by the very people you eliminated. If you?re too brutal, if you lie and cheat your way into the final two, they will not give you the $1 million if they thought you were too mean. The winner in ?Survivor? is a masterful politician who can eliminate others but not engender hatred.

So what have you observed from all these shows that you?ve produced?

That people commit the same mistakes over and over. I observed that it?s very hard for A-type people to sit back and take a passive role. I observed that great leaders do have the ability to sit back and be passive sometimes.

So where do you fall under?

I?d probably be the first one voted off! (Laughs)

What do you think about scripted shows?

I really like scripted shows and I believe a healthy television experience during the week has an equal amount of reality, comedy and drama. Too much chocolate makes you sick, so you need an even balance.

Would you say that how you view reality TV today was influenced by your own life experiences in war?

In the war I was just a kid, you know? Clearly, the beginnings of my career with ?Eco Challenge? and ?Survivor,? there?s a true line there of adventure. That?s something that I like the idea of?raw nature. It really strips away the varnish of people who, through their need to have a defense mechanism, don?t wish to show who they really are.

Tell us more about your latest show, ?Contender Asia?

?Contender Asia? will speak for itself on the screen. It is truly beautiful. It will air in America and all around the world. It?s a global village now. Sure, it?s based in Asia, and it?s based on an Asian sport, but it doesn?t mean that it?s not universal. American shows translate to Asia, Asian shows translate to America. Some of the greatest American movies are remakes of Japanese movies! Like ?Magnificent Seven.? One of my favorite movies ever in the history of moviegoing is ?Enter the Dragon,? with Bruce Lee. Frankly, ?Contender Asia? has a lot of those majestic qualities. I love in Muay Thai the celebration of the spirit, when they take a moment before the fight to pray.

What is left out, and what is added dimension in a reality show about Muay Thai than a show about surviving in the wild?

A sense of history, and respect for the inner spirit. And while it?s combat, it?s done in a very kind way, if combat can be kind. Nothing is missing, because it?s great storytelling. It?s still a competition, they still want to be the best. Some, despite the sense of majesty, still succumb to the inner id, the need for self-preservation. And other people will take the moral high ground. It makes for good storytelling. Complex characters are the best kind of storytelling. People who have flaws. If anything is too perfect, it?s not a good story. None of the great stories have perfect, one-dimensional characters and so nothing is lost in reality TV.

Can you recall a dramatic moment in the show that really moved you?

I can give you so many examples when people forego their own game for the good of someone else. But I can also respect the dramatic value of people who can be amoral, because it adds value to the show. I don?t want to hang out with these people, but I can respect it for the drama it provides. If you put people in situations, stuff just happens. The hardest thing about making non-fiction, unscripted television is to trust the process. You just have to trust.

The Contender Asia shows every Wednesday at 9 p.m. on AXN. Many thanks to Joyce Ramirez of PR Asia, Marlene Ee and Priscilla Yip of Sony Pictures Entertainment.