The Contender

When I first heard about the new reality show "The Contender", I thought to myself, for about the 179th time in the past two years, "Jesus, they're STILL cranking out new reality shows? This trend hasn't died yet? This show will suck." Somehow I found my TV tuned to NBC for the premiere last week, and I was intrigued. I watched the second episode last night, and I'm hooked. Maybe the reason this reality show phenomenon hasn't died out yet is because it still has some life left in it yet…

Okay, so here's how the show works… First, they bring in two huge names to run the show… Sly Stallone (aka Rocky) and Sugar Ray Leonard. Now, those are two pretty impressive names to start with. Next, bring in 16 boxers from all over the world. Give them a chance to "make it". They've got a pretty good mix, ranging in age from 18 to 34, a good mix of ethnicity. All the boxers have some professional experience, with a few of them having even gotten title shots. They're all in the 150-160 pound range. (Not sure what weight class that makes them… Middleweights? No clue…Anyways, they'd all be in the same weight class is my point. You won't see a Butterbean type going up against a Oscar De La Hoya type.) Then, take the 16 boxers, and divide them into two teams of 8: East and West.

Following so far? Okay, here's where it starts to get good. Each week, the two teams compete in a team challenge against one another. The first week it involved lugging some logs around. Last night, it involved running up stadium bleachers to grab flags, then unrolling pieces of a puzzle off the flags, and completing the puzzle. The challenges aren't really anything new or creative yet (they do similar stuff like this on Survivor all the time), but it's still compelling because of the prize… The winning team chooses who from their team will box in the next match. Not only that, but they also choose the opponent. Yes, that's right, they choose which of their boxers will fight and who they will fight against. That's a pretty nice advantage.

So far, the West has won both challenges. It's an interesting dynamic to see the combination of talking smack and hesitancy once they get to choose who fights. Like last night, before the West won, one of the guys was talking smack "Yeah, if we win, I want to fight. I want to fight so-and-so. I'm going to kick his ass!" Then, after they won, everybody was like "Okay, dude, you want him, he's yours." But the guy changed his tune, "Well, man, I'll fight him, but really, I'm not comfortable you guys pressuring me like this. I feel like you're forcing me into it." They chose another guy to fight.

Both times so far, the opponent they chose seemed like a strange choice. And both times they were really close fights. The fights last 5 rounds, and then go to the scorecard. I guess the idea is that, really, all these guys are pretty good fighters. And all the fights should be pretty close fights. Both times the West fighter won by unanimous decision, but the matches were close. So the team who won the challenge and got to choose their fighter and opponent has won so far.

The winning fighter gets a golden boxing glove necklace, and moves into the final 8. The loser… goes home.. You get to see the loser in the locker room after the fight with his family as he cries and showers and tries to wash away the welts from his face. It's pretty compelling stuff.

But the best part, by far, is the fight itself. Obviously, this isn't live. So they can do all kinds of crazy dramatic edits, slow motion, cuts to the crowd, sound effects, and whatnot. And it really works. It's kind of like watching Rocky but it's real. And, well, not quite as bloody. But it's pretty cool when you see one boxer land a vicious uppercut, and then the camera cuts away and shows the reaction of Stallone and Ray sitting there, or the guy's wife, or his mom, or his teammates. Complete with in between round sound bites from Sly saying things like "Yo, he won that round. Easy." or one of the boxer's teammates saying "Man, he needs to throw the jab more!" or one of their father's shouting at them in spanish and demonstrating how he should be holding his hands up on defense.

Big thumbs up here for this show. It starts on its regular night this Sunday at 8pm. Only on NBC.