Sly to Produce Reality TV Boxing Series
Tue Feb 24, 8:31 PM ET
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES - Sylvester Stallone
is getting back into boxing — this time finding and grooming
young fighters to compete in a reality television show.
The 57-year-old star of the five
"Rocky" movies will be executive producer of "The
Contender," working with reality mogul Mark Burnett
("The Apprentice" and "Survivor")
and Jeffrey Katzenberg, a founder of DreamWorks SKG.
Stallone and Burnett,
speaking at a news conference at a downtown boxing club Tuesday,
said the NBC series will focus on the lives of boxing
hopefuls in and outside the ring. NBC executives said
the show will likely air in the 2004-05 season.
"'Rocky' wasn't about boxing; it was about the people
around him who gave him reason to go on," said Stallone,
who originated the role of hard-luck fighter Rocky Balboa
role in the 1976 best-picture Oscar winner.
The idea of the new series was
hatched by Katzenberg, the former Disney executive
who went on to form his own studio with Steven Spielberg
and David Geffen.
The series will follow would-be
boxers from training camp through challenges in the ring
over 16 episodes, with the winner getting $1 million
and the chance to become a professional prize fighter.
The boxers will fight one another in a weekly elimination process
similar to other reality shows. Producers haven't decided the
weight class of the boxers yet.
Stallone said he will
jump into the ring during the series and spar with some of the
boxers. He believes the show will give boxers a Rockyesque
chance at their dream.
"The door is now wide open
again for you to have the opportunity to walk through it,"
Stallone said, speaking to potential contestants.
Both he and Burnett expressed
disenchantment with professional boxing today, saying the sport
is often misrepresented on many fronts and has too many federations.
- Craig Zablo
