The Contender is an American reality television series created by Mark Burnett about the lives, fears and hopes of 16 professional boxers as they compete for the chance to change their lives and the lives of the people they love forever.
The series originally premiered in the USA on NBC on 7 March 2005. It was cancelled after the first season by NBC, but acquired by ESPN for another two seasons. It was cancelled by ESPN after Season 3, whereafter it moved to the Versus channel for Season 4.
The Contender premiered in South Africa on DStv's actionX (now M-Net Action) channel on Tuesday 1 August 2006, at 19h00. It premiered on SABC2 on Friday 23 March 2007, at 21h00. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times by channel.
Season 4 premiered on M-Net Action on Thursday 17 December 2009, at 18h00. There are 12 hour-long episodes in the fourth season.
Season 4 Repeats
Thursdays: 23h00
Fridays: 10h00
Sundays: 09h00
Season 1
Created by Mark Burnett, The Contender follows the lives of 16 boxers, who come from all over America to represent the best and most promising boxing talent.
Executive Producer Sylvester Stallone and five time world champion boxer Sugar Ray Leonard serve as hosts and lead the group by mentoring, training, and evaluating the 16 fighters.
The aspiring boxers convene at a training camp where they live, eat, sleep, train together and participate in physically demanding challenges.
Each episode culminates in a five round professional bout where the winner moves one step closer to the one million dollar grand prize.
The series concludes with a live finale from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Friendships and rivalries will develop, and these relationships prove to be the ultimate test of ability and willpower when the boxers face off in the ring.
The Contender is a joint production between Mark Burnett Productions,
DreamWorks Television and Rogue Marble.
Sylvester Stallone, Mark Burnett and Jeffrey Katzenberg are the executive producers. Bruce Beresford-Redman, Lisa Hennessy, Conrad Riggs, Jeff Wald, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are co-executive producers.
Season 2
Boxing legend and five-time world champion Sugar Ray Leonard is the host and mentor this season, guiding the 16 new boxers through the most intense training of their careers and the most challenging experience of their lives.
Each episode culminates in a five-round professional bout where the winner moves one step closer to the $500,000 grand cash prize (down from $1-million in the first season), and a shot at the title of Contender Champion.
The season concludes with a live finale from Staples Centre in Los Angeles.
Sylvester Stallone does not appear in Season 2, as he was shooting Rocky VI at the time. He nonetheless remained executive producer.
Season Two will be contested at welterweight (Season One was fought at middleweight).
There is more of an emphasis on the boxing aspect of the show as opposed to the reality aspect this season, largely because for Season 2 the show moved from NBC to sports channel ESPN.
The heavier boxing focus also extends to editing of the boxing matches themselves, where, in an apparent attempt to ensure that the match's focus remains more on what's going on in the ring and less on the crowd reactions of those around it, The Contender 2 no longer allows a boxer's young children to attend the fight.
Also gone from the second season are the show's challenges. Instead of allowing the winners of the weekly challenges - which were dropped in a creative decision - to determine which boxers will compete in each episode's concluding fight, the team of each early round fight's winning boxer will get to determine which boxers will face off in the next fight.
To assist Sugar Ray, trainers Tommy Gallagher and Jeremy Williams are also back on board this season.
Season 3
For the third time, the Tournament of contenders has issued the challenge for the world's best boxers to fight for The Contender championship.
This time, the best super-middleweight fighters from four different continents have answered the call and will assemble in Los Angeles. They come from different backgrounds but they all have the same dream - to become the champion.
The Contender 3's 16 fighters range in age from 23 to 33 years old, representing a mix of veteran and amateur super middleweights that includes two former Olympians as well as a handful who have previously fought for world titles.
They'll be competing for The Contender 3 crown as well as the new $750,000 grand prize (the purse had previously been $1 million in Season 1 and $500,000 in Season 2).
The Contender 3 also includes a vastly improved training staff for the fighters, with The Contender's second-season trainers Tommy Gallagher and Jeremy Williams being replaced by James "Buddy" McGirt and Jose "Pepe" Correa.
McGirt is widely considered to one of the best boxing trainers around, while Correa has trained the likes of professional female boxer Laila Ali; former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis; as well as returning The Contender host, mentor and boxing Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard.
In addition, The Contender 3 will include guest appearances by comedian Adam Corolla as well as Olympic gold-medalist and boxing great Oscar De Lay Hoya - the former host of Fox's short-lived 2005 The Contender knock-off The Next Great Champ.
Six of The Contender 3's 16 fighters will be eliminated at the conclusion of the premiere broadcast.
Season 4
The fourth season of The Contender features 16 Cruiserweights from around the world who will face each other in a 12-episode competition.
With former boxer and television star Tony Danza serving as host and mentor and veteran Tommy Brooks and John Bray serving as trainers, these fighters will go through the most intense training of their lives and battle in the most challenging fights of their careers.
In the end, the two left standing will get into the ring to fight for the coveted title of Contender Champion.
Seasons
Season 1 (15 episodes)
Channel: actionX | Premiere: 1 Aug 2006 | Finale: 7 Nov 2006 | Tuesdays, 19h00
Channel: SABC2 | Premiere: 23 Mar 2007 | Finale: 29 Jun 2007 | Fridays, 21h00
Season 2 (14 episodes)
Channel: actionX | Premiere: 28 May 2007 | Finale: 27 Aug 2007 | Mondays, 20h00
Channel: SABC2 | Premiere: 15 Feb 2008 | Finale: 2 May 2008 | Fridays, 21h00
Season 3 (8 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Action | Premiere: 4 Aug 2008 | Finale: 6 Oct 2008 | Mondays, 19h00
Season 4 (12 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Action | Premiere: 17 Dec 2009 | Finale: 4 Mar 2010 | Thursdays, 18h00
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