The Contender

Sylvester Stallone gives birth to his own million-dollar baby with the reality series The Contender, which pits 16 boxers against one another for a spot in a million-dollar bout at Caesar's Palace. The format should be familiar to anyone who's seen The Apprentice or Survivor: contestants are divided into two teams (East Coast v. West Coast), there's a challenge (physical, of course), then someone gets voted off. But instead of a boardroom or tribal council to determine who's least deserving or popular, the team that wins the challenge picks one of its boxers to trade jabs with a fighter from the opposing team—whoever loses kicks the proverbial spitbucket. Sure, the fights are marred by overdramatic edits of cheering family members and video-game sound effects accompanying each jab, but this is still the most brutal, cringe-inducing reality TV we've seen since The Surreal Life.