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The Contender
http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=17202		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Madeline [ 21 Feb 05, 13:35 ]
Post subject:  The Contender
Najai Turpin's suicide leaves friends and family shocked: thenewstribune
Author:  Madeline [ 25 Feb 05, 18:50 ]
Post subject: 
Just seen Sly Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard doing an advert for the show. Sly said the show would be on ITV2 soon.
Author:  Madeline [ 06 Mar 05, 12:06 ]
Post subject: 

New series packed with action, drama, comedy and pathos.

by Jerry Graham
Santa Cruz Live

Oh, the conflicts. I resent "reality" shows and what they have done to television viewing. Yet this column is going to be a rave to a new program that fits the genre.

Though I dislike boxing and the sleaze factor that allows people like Mike Tyson to become cultural icons, I am a sucker for boxing stories.

"Million Dollar Baby" is just the latest of a long line of movies, TV and plays that have thrilled and fascinated me. Now comes "The Contender" to join the ranks of "Raging Bull," "Requiem for a Heavyweight," "Body and Soul," "Champion" and "Rocky" in telling the story of young athletes who hope to rise from humble surroundings in search of the American dream. They can’t dunk a basketball or throw a touchdown pass. They have only their hearts, fists and their ability to take punishment to succeed.

With all the poignancy of Marlon Brando’s famous line, "I coulda been a contender," the new series which begins Monday night on NBC at 9:30 p.m., is packed with action, drama, comedy and pathos.

"The Contender" has a number of heavyweights behind it. "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett, Dreamworks’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, Sylvester Stallone, Sugar Ray Leonard and Director Bruce Beresford combine their creative talents to produce a program that should be the next big hit.

More personal conflict
One of the most disturbing memories of my early days as a news reporter in New York was being assigned to the death watch at Roosevelt Hospital for Benny "Kid" Paret. He suffered fatal injuries in a welterweight bout with Emile Griffith in which the referee waited too long to stop the fight. "Outlaw boxing," cried the critics.

And now, even before "The Contender" has its premiere, one of the participants in the program has committed suicide. The boxer known as Nitro took his life after the series was filmed. Still, his story will remain part of the program.

"The Contender" starts like many "reality" shows but soon becomes something special. Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard greet 16 professional boxers who will vie to become one of two men in a million dollar fight in Las Vegas. As a sign of the times, or the editing, the young boxers are more impressed by Stallone than legitimate champ Leonard.

They are taken to a state-of-the-art gym, specially created for the series, with resort-style living quarters on the top floor. It’s a far cry from the gritty gym of "Million Dollar Baby." The contestants are divided into two teams, which will compete until the field is narrowed to two surviving boxers.

There all several elements to the drama. We get to know the families of the boxers who are also brought to the area. Hostilities develop almost immediately as the boxers try to get into a potential rival’s head.

Unlike most reality shows, this is not just some adventure that offers a chance to be on TV and make a quick buck. This is make or break for the boxers. It’s their lives. Lose and they are probably washed up. For the rest of their lives, they could have been contenders.

Each episode ends with a five-round bout to see who is eliminated from the competition. With so much on the line for both fighters, and knowing that the producers make every effort to have a clean, legitimate match, it’s impossible for even a non-fight fan to avoid being swept up in the action. santacruzlive
Author:  Madeline [ 06 Mar 05, 22:27 ]
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Stallone to reveal dietary secrets


Sylvester Stallone is writing a book about his dietary habits and fitness regime because he's sick of being asked how he looks so good at 58.

The Rocky star hopes to explode myths about diets in the new tome, which he hopes to release this summer, and insists the secret to his success has always been about moderation.

He says: "I try to figure out what has worked over the years and stick to it. I'll overeat on a certain day and the next day I'll just cut back... after a while it becomes second nature.

"Diets don't work. It's taking whatever you do and just moderating it... I'm just gonna lay it out for people."

And Stallone admits his dietary tips have already paid off on pal and former boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard, who had let himself go after years of fighting fit.

He adds: "When I met Ray he was like a big, dumpy guy. He was pathetic... Now look at him."

It's a busy year for the movie star - he's also launching a new US boxing reality show, The Contender, later this month and he has a new dietary supplement range.

The actor is also the editor-in-chief on new mature men's magazine Sly. breakingnews
Author:  Rincewind [ 06 Mar 05, 22:28 ]
Post subject: 
Sugar Ray Leonard, the best boxer i've ever seen :D
Author:  JimD [ 08 Mar 05, 23:22 ]
Post subject:  NBC's 'Contender' Takes First Round Beating
(Tuesday, March 08 12:54 PM)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) It wasn't a knockout. In fact, it probably wasn't even a knockdown. But NBC's long-delayed boxing reality series "The Contender" finally answered the bell on Monday (March 7) and it took a beating. It's too early to say that the pugilistic drama is going to lose this bout, but here's hoping NBC has a good cut-man in its corner.

"The Contender," from industry heavyweights Mark Burnett ("Survivor"), Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sylvester Stallone ("Rhinestone"), had to weather the failure of FOX's similarly pitched "Next Great Champ," at least a half-dozen various schedule shifts and the recent suicide of one of its contestants. In that light, the show's average viewership of roughly 8.4 million viewers across its 90-minute running time is probably disappointing, but not disastrous.

The show's 4.1 rating among adults 18-49 was far below what "Las Vegas" and "Medium" have been averaging this season.

NBC will try to get a healthier "Contender" sampling when it airs this Thursday at 10 p.m. ET before settling into its regular home on Sunday night.
CBS proudly took credit for the beating "The Contender" took. The network took the unusual step of benching new episodes of "Two and a Half Men" and "CSI: Miami" during the last week of February sweeps in order to take on "The Contender" with new episodes. The gamble paid off as the Charlie Sheen comedy drew 17.45 million and "CSI" grabbed 21.68 million.

Interestingly, FOX also decided it wanted a piece of the "Contender"-trumping pie, as the network's morning ratings release boldly declared "'24' puts 'Contender' Down for Count." While it is true that "24" did top "The Contender" easily (thanks in massive part to its "American Idol" lead-in), the audience for "24" fell dramatically in its second half-hour, the only time it went head-to-head with the NBC show.
Author:  Madeline [ 14 Mar 05, 16:17 ]
Post subject: 
The show starts tonight .....
Author:  Madeline [ 18 Mar 05, 9:05 ]
Post subject: 

Emotion runs deep in boxing episode


Najai Turpin's suicide brings a life of struggle up-close in Sunday's reality boxing show "The Contender." -- Photo provided by NBC



It's impossible to watch Sunday's episode of "The Contender" without wondering what's going on inside the head of boxer Najai Turpin, who killed himself last month, long after the show was taped.

It's also impossible not to be moved by this powerful hour, beginning at 8 p.m. on WTHR .

Knowing Turpin is dead makes every word, every moment in this Mark Burnett-produced series more poignant.

"My family, if I die today or tomorrow, they have nothing," Turpin says early in the hour. "But now, this gives me the opportunity to go out there and give them something. Give them something to look forward to in life."

He tells boxing manager Jackie Kallen that he doesn't hold people close because "they'll cross you."

Only his daughter, Anyae, gets close, he says, his face partially covered by a sweatshirt hood.

Turpin shot himself Feb. 14 in Philadelphia while sitting in a car with his girlfriend. In an instant, he left behind the family he so wanted to save -- with nothing.

"Najai is the contender who most confuses me," Kallen says. "He's a sweet guy, and he's very distrustful of people. He reminds me so much of a little animal that's been mistreated."

In this episode of "The Contender," as in the others, the story that emerges during the hour is about the two boxers who will fight in the end.

The decision of who fights whom comes after two teams of boxers -- East and West -- compete in a contest to pull a truck along the Los Angeles River. The winning team decides who to put up for the bout, and that boxer picks his opponent from the losing team.

Burnett has proven time and again that he's a master at crafting a reality show so that viewers care about the contestants. He's already done that with "The Contender."

The drama in this episode comes from various sources, not just Turpin, though he is the focal point by virtue of his personal struggles.

Early on, one of the boxers leaves for medical reasons, opening up a slot for one of the previously beaten fighters. And there's Sergio Mora, a street fighter who reads literary classics for life inspiration.

Before the show launched, Burnett and co-executive producers Sylvester Stallone, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sugar Ray Leonard stressed that while boxing is the backdrop, the show goes beyond the sport in the way that Stallone's "Rocky" films also told the emotional story of the boxer's relationship with his wife, Adrian.

The interest of Sunday's episode, however, comes in part from the mysterious eyes of Turpin -- the eyes of a father struggling to get out of the ghetto by using his fists.

"My joy, she is my everything," he says of Anyae. "She gave me a reason to do everything I do. When my daughter was born, it gave me so much joy. It was like I had my mother again, someone I could trust, someone I could put my all into."

"The Contender" is much more than boxing, it's a show with heart. And this Sunday, it has a broken heart.indystar
Author:  Madeline [ 22 Mar 05, 16:38 ]
Post subject: 
Boxing show KOs ITV2 rivals



Sly Stallone's boxing reality show, The Contender, is developing into a multichannel ratings hit for ITV2, attracting more than 400,000 viewers last night.

The Contender caused controversy last month after one of the contestants committed suicide shortly before it was due to launch on NBC in the US.

But both NBC and ITV2 have gone ahead with transmission the show, which last night attracted 430,000 viewers on the ITV channel between 9pm and 10pm, according to unofficial overnights.

This was more than 100,000 viewers up on the ratings for the launch episode on ITV2 last Monday and made The Contender the most watched multichannel programme in its slot.

The Contender was up against multichannel competition, including BBC3's Teen Angels, in which behavioural experts try to sort out troublesome youngsters, which attracted 273,000 viewers.

Over on Sky One, TV movie Anonymous Rex was watched by 378,000 viewers, while on E4, Smallville attracted 182,000mediaguardian
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