Stallone, ‘Contender’ pack some punch

I’ll admit that the lightweight melodrama kind of gripped me as I watched “The Contender,” NBC’s next great hope of a reality show in which 16 boxers compete for a shot at a title fight and $1 million.

The show is produced by Mark Burnett, the Jerry Bruckheimer of reality TV and the man behind “Survivor,” “The Apprentice” and the upcoming Martha Stewart version of “The Apprentice,” which is not called “Commando Nanny” (although that was the title of another Burnett project, a sitcom that never aired).

The road to “The Contender’s” debut has been paved with potholes. First, Burnett and Jeffrey Katzenberg, his producing partner at DreamWorks, lost a bid to keep a rival boxing show, Fox’s “The Next Great Champ,” off the air (though “Champ,” which aired in September, was a ratings bomb). And then last month, in the amp-up to “The Contender,” one of the show’s contestants, a 23-year-old middleweight boxer from Philadelphia named Najai Turpin, committed suicide.

Turpin isn’t much seen in tonight’s show, Burnett electing not to re-edit what he already had. Except for the championship fight, all the episodes had wrapped before Turpin killed himself, and NBC and Burnett stood firm. The show must go on, after all, especially when that show is reportedly costing the network more than $2 million an episode over 13 weeks.

If you’re wondering why NBC would take such a costly gamble on a reality show, consider this one stars Sylvester Stallone, who has never done a television series and who, at least in the first 90-minute installment, does some of his most understated work since “Copland.”

In “The Contender,” he plays God. Or maybe he’s just Mr. Roarke from “Fantasy Island.” Anyway, as the show opens, he’s standing on a bridge in L.A. and saying: “Life is a fight. Everyone gets knocked down. What matters is how fast you get up.”

Too true. I don’t know if Stallone will continue to be this omnipresent as the series progresses; if not, it’s a terrible tease. He looks a little odd these days, his face still Stallone’s but frozen as Stallone, like a sculpture of himself (“cut me, Dr. Feldman”). His face is a version of Trump’s hair transfixing. At the beginning, Stallone narrates as the contenders file into the L.A. gym where they’ll train. They’re mostly versions of “Rocky,” unknown fighters with a dream. Jonathan Reid is a “seasoned pro with a checkered past,” Stallone says. Alfonso Gomez is “just trying to prove he belongs.” Yo, where’s Adrian?

“You are now in charge of your own lives,” Stallone tells them after they’ve assembled. At this point it feels like they’re about to be deployed. War is boxing’s prevailing metaphor, the ring a microcosm of larger-world themes -- race, class, courage.

That’s if you don’t mind watching one human being punch another human being in the face. To that end, “The Contender” is a slickly produced paean to the sport -- designed, we’re told, to restore dignity to the fight game, which has suffered for years from a lack of marketable stars while being defined by the antics of one dissembling ex-champ, Mike Tyson.

Pity the sport that needs a reality show to reaffirm its dignity. I counted homages to at least two of the “Rocky” movies, “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and “On the Waterfront.”

Because as much as it requires them to train and fight, “The Contender” also demands that its boxers act out little dramatic scenes that stress the pathos in their lives. In tonight’s episode, the boxers who get the most face time are the ones presumably fighting not just for themselves, but for their families. There’s Anthony Bonsane, the single dad, and Peter Manfredo, with a wife and young daughter hanging on his every punch.

Like the Olympics, “The Contender” hard-sells the up-close-and-personal story (otherwise known as the scene where the guy might cry), the idea being that women won’t watch unless there’s a tender story line to follow. “Your family is your foundation,” ex-champ Sugar Ray Leonard, who plays Stallone’s sidekick, tells the boxers.

But I think they’re also doing it for the same reasons anyone who goes on a reality show goes on a reality show. For the tangible rewards -- i.e., money and fame. And a chance to consort with Sly. It’s what “The Contender” has that most other reality shows don’t -- a worthwhile celebrity pitchman. (Who wants to shake Trump’s hand? He’ll just wash off the handshake with Purell, anyway.)

Each week on “The Contender,” two boxers will step into the ring for a five-round fight, the loser going home. The build-up to tonight’s bout is amusing. There’s a weigh-in and a pre-fight press conference, where “Access Hollywood’s” Tony Potts stands up and asks a question. How very postmodern -- the entertainment reporter Tony Potts playing the entertainment reporter Tony Potts on an entertainment show.

Or you could just call it media prostitution. At the fight within the show, sitting ringside are James Caan, Melanie Griffith and Chuck Norris. I wish I had that much free time.

But in the end I was kind of buying it, my heart racing as the bell sounded.

Then again, I watch “Rocky” whenever it’s on.

*

‘The Contender’

Where: NBC

When: 9:30 - 11 tonight

Ratings: PG

Sugar Ray Leonard...Host/boxing mentor

Sylvester Stallone...Host

Executive producers Jeffrey Katzenberg, Mark Burnett, Sylvester Stallone. Creator Mark Burnett.