Contender: Must See TV

Published in General on March 7th, 2005 10:26 pm by Nicholas Roussos

I saw the first episode of The Contender tonight. Wow, I was surprised and impressed. The commercials had made it look all sappy and emotional, as if it was the next in a series of Day of Our Lives specials, but when it got down to it, this was one fun and different show.

Here are some of the things I liked that I thought were different from most reality TV shows:

  1. Real, diverse talent - from a boxer ranked 3rd in the world to promising amatuers
  2. not setup to cause drama - Unlike Survivor where they costantly are reminded of their missing families, this show actually paid to bring the contestants’ families out to be with them during the show
  3. elimination is as fair as it could be - They have a team contest each episode. The winning team gets to choose someone from their team to fight someone from the loosing team. The looser of the fight goes home.

Okay, so this episode (expect a weekly recap), they divided the group up into teams based on where they came from. The teams were called East and West. The team competition was an uphill race that ended at the Hollywood sign. Each team had to collect and carry three logs with them. The second log was tied down, and the third was locked. The combination to the lock was displayed on signs along the course. Team West made a surprising come back when Team East couldn’t remember the combination to their lock.

Team East got to decide who fights who. At first, they had decided to choose the two least experienced fighters from each team, but out of nowhere Alonzo, a virtual unknown volenteers to fight Peter, 21-0 ranked 3rd in the world. Everyone including Sly Stallone is surprised. They go through the motions, press conference, night before preps, pre-fight chatter, and the fight gets on the way. Alonzo surprises Peter and takes the first round. Peter comes back in round two and almost knocks down Alonzo. Round three goes to Alonzo, and round four is a dead heat. Round five (the final round) is in Alonzo’s favor. It’s a surprising victory, but Alonzo out fought his opponent.Next time, there’s a guest appearance from George Foreman.

I have to say Mark Burnell has another winning show on his hands.

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