In boxing parlance, “The Contender” has slimmed down and found its proper weight class. And for ESPN, it’s been a knockout this summer.
The 11-episode boxing reality show, produced by Mark Burnett Productions and DreamWorks Television, features 16 hopefuls who meet in the ring and eliminate each other in bouts over the course of the season. The final two fighters square off for $500,000 in prize money.
When it debuted on NBC last fall, “The Contender” was the most expensive reality show ever produced, costing NBC $2 million an episode. It started fast in terms of ratings, but after the numbers dropped over the course of the season, “Contender” was not renewed for a second season. A copycat reality boxing series, backed by boxer Oscar de la Hoya, died a quick death, too.
Enter ESPN, which has turned the reality-based boxing series into a heavyweight for its summer lineup.
“We got early word it was not happening on NBC and we really pursued it,” said Ron Wechsler, senior vice president of development for ESPN Original Productions. “We felt it was a more proper fit on our air we could be more consistent and give it a good schedule.”
The boxing show has found its niche: The first two episodes of “Contender” improved ESPN’s ratings in the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. time slot by more than a third compared with the same time last year. More importantly, 70 percent of that audience is in the 18 to 49 demographic so valued by advertisers.
“It’s a bit of a slower period, so as far as we are concerned, so it’s in our wheelhouse,” Wechsler said. Broadcast networks still debut most of their shows in the fall, and over the past several years cable networks have been filling the original programming gap and boosting their ratings.
The show has flourished with a budget suited to cable, too. No one associated with the show would talk specifics.
“The interesting thing about (the move) was that we had to scale it down, but it ended up making the show more intimate and got us to focus more on the athletes,” said DreamWorks Television founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. “It served us well; less is more.”
“The Contender” cut production costs by eliminating the team “challenges” present in the first season and focused more on the individual boxers, an athletic connection Katzenberg said is paramount to ESPN viewers. Production was also moved from a posh Pasadena gym and living quarters to downtown digs that give the show a darker, grittier feel. The championship prize money was cut in half and one of the show’s hosts, Sylvester Stallone, bowed out, leaving boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard as the sole emcee.
Ratings relativity
Though “The Contender has significantly fewer viewers on ESPN, with about 1.9 million per show, than it did on NBC with about 6 million viewers, it provides a lesson in broadcast vs. cable ratings relativity.
ESPN is in about 90 million homes, while NBC is in roughly 175 million, so the approximately 2 million viewers mean more to ESPN than the 6 million did to NBC.
The Paris Hilton reality series “The Simple Life” followed a similar broadcast-to-cable path to success.
“It’s all about diminished expectations,” said TV Week senior reporter James Hibberd. “For example, if ‘The Simple Life’ gets 1.5 million viewers on Fox it’s an absolute disaster, if it gets 1.5 on E it’s a success.”
It’s clear that “The Contender” is a good fit for the cabler.
“‘The Contender’ is clearly a sports franchise and ESPN has done a great job of marketing,” said Lisa Hennessy, the show’s executive producer for Mark Burnett Productions. “There are so many options on TV, so many stations and channels to choose from, that cable does a better job of marketing and promotion. They need to work harder, so they do.” While cutting production costs, ESPN has upped promotional spending with billboards and postings throughout markets such as Los Angeles and New York, though the network would not disclose the campaign’s cost.
ESPN has also sold 3,500 tickets to date for the season finale, which will be fought live at the Staples Center on Sept. 26.
“The only catch is, how much did the network pay for those viewers, what did it cost to bring them over to the cable channel?” Hibberd said.
