Nellie Andreeva

Law & Order chief Dick Wolf has teamed with reality veteran Mark Burnett for a competition reality series aimed at honoring America’s veterans and active-duty servicemen and women. Tentatively titled Stars Earn Stripes, the series, set at Dick Wolf’s long-time home, NBC, where Burnett has reality hit The Voice, will feature nine stars from different areas of public life (screen, music, sports) who will gather at a top-notch, secret military training facility. Each of them will be paired with a trainer whose job it is to prepare his or her celeb for the rigors of the weekly challenge. These challenges will be adapted from real exercises practiced by all five branches of the armed services, as well as joint ops and Special Forces. From a staged hostage rescue to correctly placing a laser target atop a mountain, these celebs will be tested physically, mentally, and emotionally and, like the audience, emerge in awe of the men and women who do such tasks on behalf of our country every day. “I think this is a unique opportunity to pay a tribute to our troops and first responders, who put their lives on the line everyday,” Wolf said. “Mark and I will be able to bring a show to America that works on a multitude of levels.”

This marks a return to the unscripted arena for Wolf who also executive produced the docu-series Crime & Punishment and Arrest & Trial. With the show, Burnett revisits his past as a former section commander from the British Army. “Stars Earn Stripes is a high energy, fun, action show, but at its heart it is all about those five words: ‘Thank you for your service’. Our celebrities are going to experience the high adrenaline that special forces and law enforcement encounter and will realize how very hard and scary it is to do those jobs.” Wolf and Burnett executive produce the project with David Hurwitz (Fear Factor).

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