Contender sues Next Great Champ; judge ruling today on motion to stop FOX’s show. Contender producers DreamWorks TV and Mark Burnett–but not network NBC–filed suit yesterday to stop FOX from airing its competing, copycat boxing series The Next Great Champ. The suit doesn’t “accuse Fox of ripping off their pugilistic project,” but rather, “the plaintiffs …
Next Great Champ
Next Great Champ will be previewed Thursday, debut Sept. 10; De La Hoya says he wishes NBC’s show “best of luck.” FOX’s The Next Great Champ will officially debut Sept. 10, two months before NBC’s The Contender hits the airwaves. The series will be previewed this Thursday, though, during FOX’s second celebrity boxing special. Despite …
Next Great Champ wraps after taping fake endings, announcing multiple winners. FOX and Endemol have wrapped production on their boxing series The Next Great Champ. “Worried that the winner of the competish might leak out in advance,” Variety reports, “Fox and Endemol taped several different title fights without telling the live audience if the bout …
FOX’s Next Great Champ could be shut down by athletic officials for violations. FOX’s boxing series could fall from a punch that’s coming from the California State Athletic Commission. The commission “is examining potential rule violations by the producers of the Fox show” because “a licensed promoter may not have been involved in the production …
NBC renews Last Comic Standing for fall, moves Contender up to November. The success of Last Comic Standing 2 has led NBC to renew the show. The new season will debut August 31–immediately after the Olympics, and shortly after the finale of the second season. Reuters calls this “an unexpected move” and chalks it up …
De La Hoya rejected The Contender because it’s a “tough-man contest.” Oscar De La Hoya turned down NBC and Mark Burnett’s offer to star in The Contender, and then turned around and created a similar show, The Next Great Champ, which originally turned down Burnett’s show. De La Hoya says he rejected The Contender because …
after losing bid for The Contender, FOX orders Oscar De La Hoya boxing series. Because the world needs at least two, if not three, reality TV boxing series, and because networks don’t fail for plagiarism, FOX has ordered a boxing reality TV series with Oscar De La Hoya. Mark Burnett and Jeffrey Katzenberg aren’t happy, …