Versus TV Gets Rights For Contender

Contender has had quite a life on various networks.  It started on NBC which quickly got yanked due to ratings or lack thereof.  ESPN attempted to revive Contender and it did quite well on ESPN but still wasn’t what the network wanted.

Versus came out the victor in winning the rights to the show.  Other reported stations that looked at picking up the show was none other than your well known Spike TV.  This is the perfect get me up that Versus needed.  Versus established itself as a niche station for fighting, boxing and MMA with events for the WEC, Chuck Norris’ World Combat League (WCL) amongst other sporting events.

Versus picked up 11 new episodes (1 hour in length) of the “Contender” series with a 2 hour finale that will begin airing in December.  On top of the regular contender series, it also gained the rights to Contender: Muay Thai that will air 14 new episodes (1 hour in length) and a 2 hour finale as well that will be starting July 31st.

The Contender: Muay Thai will follow the mother series in regards to how it will be setup and ran.  It will bring in 16 of the best fighters from around the world that specialize Muay Thai Kickboxing.

Marc Fein (Versus VP of Programming, Production and Business Operations) had this to say:

“This is a series that is right up our alley and we are pumped to be able to air it.  In addition, this serves as a great compliment to our lineup of raw, real, authentic and hard-hitting programming such as ‘World Extreme Cagefighting,’ ‘Fight Night’ and ‘TapouT.’ ”

I couldn’t agree more and am excited that this will be added to the lineup of Versus in the future.  All in all, this is a big win for Versus especially since Spike TV was running for the rights as well.

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