Word: primed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...night where Mary Tyler Moore once ruled, CBS is now banking on Kevin Ferguson, a mixed martial arts fighter who goes by the stage name of Kimbo Slice, to draw younger viewers, especially men ages 18 to 34. But in giving such a prime-time spot to mixed martial arts (MMA), the fast-growing, full-combat sport that combines elements of boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jujitsu and other disciplines, the network is taking a calculated gamble...
...draws strong ratings on the cable channel Spike TV, and is a money-maker on pay-per-view; in 2007, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA's dominant promoter, secured over $200 million in pay-per-view revenues, up from some $40 million in 2005. Still, scoring a prime-time network audience will expose the sport to a whole new universe of potential fans, and scrutiny. "This is hugely important for the sport," says Doug DeLuca, chairman of ProElite Inc., the company that is staging the CBS bouts. "MMA has done a great job reaching a hard-core, niche audience...
...Well maybe not all eyes. Saturday night prime-time TV, after all, has for years been a relative dead zone full of reruns, so DeLuca shouldn't expect knockout ratings, at least not right away. But there's no doubt that Kimbo Slice will draw a crowd. Once a promising Miami high school football player, Kimbo, now 34, flunked out of college and for a time lived in his car. He worked odd jobs - strip-club bouncer, porn company bodyguard - until he started street fighting about seven years ago for money in Miami backyards. "It kept me away from dealing...
...have to be spoon-fed MMA 101. "The challenge is that we have to serve two audiences," says Kahl. "We don't want to talk down to the hard-core fans, but we also can't alienate first-time viewers." Also, the network isn't exactly offering the sport prime real estate on the schedule, though CBS insists this is the best way to ease novel programming into the mainstream. "Because it's new, Saturday nights is a way for us to dip our toe in water," says Kahl. "Saturday night fights just felt right. And the whole idea...
...cash accumulated from the lucrative sale of TV rights, only a third of players starting games last season would have qualified to play for England. Foreigners now own eight of the 20 teams: Russian Roman Abramovich owns Chelsea, Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks own Liverpool, and former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra owns Manchester City...