NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Boxing is a bruised and battered sport. But it is about to get its best exposure since the first "Rocky" movie: both Fox and NBC plan new boxing-themed reality programs next season.
The two shows -- "The Contender" on NBC and "The Next Great Champ" on Fox -- certainly won't hurt the fight game. But don't expect them to do more than stop the bleeding for a sport so troubled that it lacks virtually any public recognition of its current champions. The shows are unlikely to produce the true boxing stars who can challenge today's nearly anonymous top boxers. And true stars is what everyone agrees boxing needs now more than ever.
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| Slyvester Stallone brings some star power to "The Contender" boxing reality show, but don't expect the show to produce the true stars boxing needs right now. |
NBC's entry boasts the star power of actor Sylvester Stallone and Mark Burnett, the creator of hit reality shows "Survivor" and "The Apprentice." Fox is turning to six-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya, who is himself still an active boxer.
Both are scouring gyms to find contestants for the shows ("The Contender" hits New York on Sunday). But details, including the weight class of the fighters and the criteria used to choose contestants and winners, have yet to be announced.
The boxing industry and the two shows' producers are all hopeful that the sport will gain greater public acceptance once the programs start.
"My feeling is that while we are constructing a show you need not be a boxing fan to enjoy, it will reintroduce millions of people to boxing," said Bruce Beresford-Redman, co-executive producer of "The Contender." "People will begin to appreciate boxing from a new perspective."
The producers also believe that there is great boxing talent out there, just waiting to be discovered by and developed by the shows.
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"We've got fighters who are Golden Glove champions, who have been to Olympic trials," said Joe Livecchi, executive producer of "The Next Great Champ."
"Obviously we're doing a television show here and stories are important," he said. "But we're finding everybody has a story. We're not going to make any concessions, throw someone in there if they don't have the chops to make it in the ring."
Dubious about discovery
Despite the claims of the producers, people involved in the sport doubt that reality TV is going to produce any true contenders for a championship.
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| Boxing reality show winners will likely be more famous, but not competitive, with today's top boxers. |
"Boxing promoters, for all the bad [things] you say about them, have an eye for talent," said boxing writer Bert Sugar, author of "Bert Sugar on Boxing." "They know where the potential stars are, and they've already got them."
"What the reality shows are going to get is wannabes and dregs," he said. "They are going to be boxing's lounge acts."
Ross Greenburg, president of HBO sports, which airs boxing both on the premium cable channel and on a pay-per-view basis, says he has great hopes that the shows will improve the sport's popularity. But like Sugar, Greenburg is dubious that either will produce an eventual champion. He says he'll be thrilled if the shows only produce the boxing version of Anna Kournikova -- an athlete who is more attractive to the general audience than she is competitive in her sport.
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"Anna Kournikova has done a lot of good for women's tennis," he said. "She brought a lot of people to television sets. When they were watching her match to see how short her dress was, maybe they noticed what a great tennis player Venus Williams was on other side of net."
And Kevin Monaghan, vice president of business development for NBC Sports, which last year resumed a limited number of boxing broadcasts on NBC as well as its Spanish-language network Telemundo, says the reality shows could be help with a group more important than fans: advertisers, who have been reluctant to buy space on boxing.
"When we walked away from it in 1992, boxing was still getting good ratings. The problem was we couldn't make any money on it," said Monaghan. "We've changed the model so it's slightly profitable. In our world, where a typical media buyer who might be female, who might not be a boxing fan, these shows could open things up."
Still, its tough to see boxing ever getting major media exposure again, no matter how popular these shows become. The winners of a show like Fox's "American Idol" can go on and have a successful musical career because music is a matter of taste and exposure -- a little publicity can turn Clay Aiken into a star.
Boxing, on the other hand, is a matter of skills and brute force, a sport in which real athletes get real hurt.
The reality is that reality TV won't make boxing a heavyweight player in the broader world of sports once again.
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