the contender

In a story we're tired of writing, ABC again has topped the other networks in Sunday night ratings despite a “best of” version of Desperate Housewives. That special drew 23.7 million viewers and gave Grey's Anatomy a lead-in for another record showing of 18 million viewers. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also won its timeslot with 16.7 million viewers. The surprise of the night was the CBS original movie Locusts starring Lucy Lawless, Xena herself, ringing up 12.7 million viewers. That's not too shabby for such a pitiful looking vehicle. The American Top 40 Awards drew a measly 4 million viewers while The Contender managed to land 5.5 million and 6.4 million viewers for its two episodes that aired back-to-back.

Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy destroyed the competition Sunday night as the rest of the networks came up lame with reruns and theatrical films. Housewives clocked in a mindblowing 25 million viewers while Grey's had its best ratings so far with 19 million. Fox came in a distant second with new episodes of The Simpsons and the season finale of Arrested Development. AD only managed 5.9 million viewers. That's sad. The Contender didn't outrate anyone as Law & Order: Criminal Intent's repeat led NBC's line-up with 9.7 million viewers.

Does anyone feel this show is dragging on? Every reality show I watch seems to just go a few episodes long these days. The Contender is no exception. This week there were only two fighters left, so there was no need for a challenge to see who would fight. Jimmy and Joey seemed like a boring fight and for the most part it was. But the knockdown at the end that signaled Jimmy's inability to capitalize on his opponents injury and the wild shots Joey could unload.

Internet giant Yahoo is looking to expand their multimedia empire with more TV programming. Not giving you the daily grid, no Yahoo wants to broadcast shows over the Internet. They experimented with it earlier this year by showing the debut of Showtime's Fat Actress and are looking to expand content. I also noticed the two expanded websites for The Apprentice and The Contender are on Yahoo, not NBC's website. It seems the big Y knows what we do, TV junkies are important folks.

This is the point in most reality shows where I lose interest. The characters get dull, the premise gets dull and the format starts to grate on you. For some reason I'm still enjoying The Contender, and my only reasoning for it is that at the end there's a real battle as opposed to a boardroom showdown. This week was actually interesting for fight fans as there was the return of Peter Manfredo Jr. to the ring. Throughout the episode, everyone was saying how out of it he looked. Yet, like the real Vargas-Joval fight Saturday, even though Miguel threw a lot more punches, it seemed Manfredo had the power. Vargas looked lackluster compared to his pre-injury days, but for a comeback fight he did enough to make a statement Saturday. So did Manfredo tonight. However, after watching the Vargas fight, I really would like NBC to show the five rounds unedited. It would take the same amount of time as the edited version it seems to me (15 minutes for the three-minute rounds, five minutes for the corner action). That would be much improved and show “reality!” And I'm very glad someone from the East team finally won.

The Duke-Mississippi State game running into primetime gave CBS the nightly ratings with the game's 16.4 million viewers. That crowd stuck around for “60 Minutes” drawing 16.3 million viewers and “Cold Case” with 16.5 million. Even “Spring Break Shark Attack” drew 11.5 million idiots...I mean viewers. Over at ABC a rerun of “Desperate Housewives” attracted 13.2 million slowpokes and “Boston Legal” finished with 11.4 million. Wait a second, a new “Boston Legal” had less viewers than “Spring Break Shark Attack?” Travesty. “The Contender” is slowly improving to 7.8 million viewers. But that's still not good considering “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” drew 12.3 million and “Crossing Jordan” drew 11.2 million. “The Simpsons” are flat these days with only 8.6 million viewers and “Arrested Development” is doing poorly as well with 5.9 million.

I'm catching up on my watching here. Last night's Contender was tough to watch. Knowing that Najai committed suicide last month meant it was going to be painful to follow this week's action. It also meant we knew the outcome of the fight between Najai and Sergio. I'm just glad Najai had that amazing second round and wasn't completely outboxed. The show did a good job of addressing what really happened but left the episode itself full of painful Najai material. We hear from Najai about how devastated he was that he lost. And we also see him playing with his baby daughter. That is real human tragedy and makes me unsettled as a voyeur into this family's pain. Folks can donate money to Najai's daughter through the show's website. The website is actually on Yahoo.com for some reason and it is much more updated than NBC's site.