• ESPN formally announces pickup of 'The Contender', second season to premiere in April 2006

  August 11, 2005
  Confirming the recent public statements of ESPN executives, Mark Burnett Productions, DreamWorks Television, and the cable sports giant announced today that the network will become the new broadcast home of The Contender, last winter's critically-acclaimed but low-rated reality boxing series that NBC canceled after only a single season.
• 

  Peter Manfredo Jr. loses undefeated record in premiere of NBC's 'The Contender'

  March 8, 2005
  One of the real surprises when the cast for NBC's The Contender was announced was that Peter Manfredo, Jr., a promising middleweight with a 21-0 record who was ranked #3 in the world by the World Boxing Organization, had agreed to become one of the 16 contestants on the reality-competition boxing show. A bigger surprise, shown on the March 7 premiere episode of The Contender, was that Peter became the first contestant eliminated from the show, as he suffered his first pro defeat at the hands of Alfonso Gomez, Jr. (now 11-2-1 as a pro).

• NBC's 'The Contender' comes out swinging hoping to be Mark Burnett's next reality knockout

  March 5, 2005
  For the first time since 1976 and only the second time ever, a motion picture focused on the world of boxing, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, won the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. Will that success translate into a wider interest in (or even a wider tolerance of) boxing? NBC's new reality-competition boxing series, The Contender, which premieres at 9:30 PM ET/PT on Monday, March 7, certainly hopes so.
• 

  'The Contender' boxer Najai Turpin commits suicide before the NBC show airs

  February 15, 2005
  Up-and-coming Philadelphia boxer Najai "Nitro" Turpin, 23, one of the sixteen contestants appearing on NBC's upcoming The Contender boxing reality-competition show, apparently committed suicide in a parked car on the Valentine's Day morning of February 14, 2005.

• NBC's 'The Contender' to premiere February 21, then air Tuesdays versus Fox's 'American Idol'

  December 6, 2004
  Despite witnessing Fox's The Next Great Champ copycat series draw dismal ratings, it looks like NBC and Survivor and The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett are still looking for a fight. A Nielsen fight. NBC announced last week that The Contender, Burnett's highly-publicized reality boxing series that had its premise copied by Fox, will premiere in late February -- and air regularly versus Fox's American Idol ratings heavyweight.

MORE JEFFREY KATZENBERG NEWS