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Contender 2 sponsor Everlast is “very pleased with the viewer ratings for this new season,” the company’s president said in a statement. Although the ratings for the first episode were down among total viewers, Everlast says the show “reached 20 million viewers nationwide across all airings on ESPN and ESPN2 just ten days since the …

Read More about Everlast is “very pleased” with Contender 2, which it says has “reached 20 million viewers nationwide”

Moving from NBC to ESPN cost The Contender more than 5.5 million viewers. Last week’s debut was watched by 1.03 million people, compared to the 6.7 million that watched the first episode on NBC last spring. While some of that change could be blamed by the show’s move to cable, which has traditionally drawn fewer …

Read More about The Contender loses 5.5 million viewers moving from NBC to ESPN; ABC’s The One beaten by SciFi show

Sylvester Stallone will not appear on-screen for The Contender 2, which debuts on ESPN in July. Stallone “was busy filming Rocky Balboa,” according to Entertainment Weekly. Thus, Sugar Ray Leonard is left to host awkwardly all by himself. The magazine also reports that, for the second season, “producers have stripped away the silly truck-pulling and …

Read More about The Contender 2 drops host Sylvester Stallone and team challenges

ESPN has bumped The Contender 2‘s debut to July from April, when it was originally scheduled to debut. This Sunday, however, the network will present a special event entitled “East Coast Pride,” a fight between Peter Manfredo, Jr., and Scott Pemberton. The fight will air live from Providence, Manfredo’s home base, at 9:30 p.m. ET. …

Read More about Contender 2 moves to July; Manfredo felt “ripped off” but will fight again Sunday