Any hints on the nature of the mid-show contest?
It’s set on a mile-long uphill course just below the world-famous Hollywood sign. It involves markedly more physical strength than mental acuity, although the tiny amount of mental acuity required actually costs the losing team the contest.

Do the promos deceive me? Is former champion Sugar Ray Leonard even smaller than notoriously tiny actor Sylvester Stallone?
He is. In fact, it’s amazing that none of the contestants weigh more than 158 pounds. I think I read recently that the average weight for an American woman is now 160 pounds.

What else is TV Guide not telling us?
Boxing icon Jackie Kallen, whom Meg Ryan played in “Against the Ropes,” is briefly introduced at the top of the show, then vanishes completely. Also? At least two of the 16 fighters – Ishi Smith and Alfonzo Gomez – have fought each other in the past. Smith is responsible for one of Gomez’ only two losses!

Is there a Smith-Gomez rematch this week??
Not this week. And the two are not likely to face off anytime soon, as they’re both on the “West” team.

The big news?
Shockingly, we witness almost no interpersonal conflict between these young boxers. The closest we get to heated words coming during a brief but very public conversation between two of the four boxers we get to know a bit this week: Smith and a Lebanon-born pretty-boy named Ahmed. These words come during a press conference, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if off-camera “Contender” producers prodded Smith to instigate the verbal face-off. In any event, it’s an too-brief highlight.

Do Smith and Ahmed come to blows this week?
Neither is in the climactic match.

Who is in the climactic match this week?
That would be telling. I will say their records going in are 10-2 and 22-0.

Does the climactic fight end in a knockout?
It does not.

What’s good?
The mid-show challenge was fun and fairly “Survivor”-like (if not “Fear Factor”-like) in its Rube Goldberg complexity. Also, I normally couldn’t care less about the outcome of a boxing match, but the show did invest me in the outcome of the final battle.

What’s not so good?
A fundamental difference between this and Burnett’s other elimination shows is that there are no hot young women competing. (Even the WWE was smart enough to balance out the genders for its similar “Tough Enough” reality series). Also? The contestants seem to have been chosen, perhaps laudably, more for their fighting ability rather than their personalities - but these boxers, it turns out, are a fairly dull lot when they’re not trading blows. Also also? Stallone’s an okay host, but Leonard is pretty much charisma-free, “inspiring” the contestants with eye-rolling clichés like, “What’s going to determine who wins is this (points at his heart) and this (points at head). If you want it, go for it.” Yeah, thanks, Sugar Ray.

How does it end, spoiler-boy?
“I’ve been fighting since I was five years old,” says the loser, as footage of him exiting the gym one last time unspools. “Where do I go from here?”

Herc’s rating for “The Contender” 1.1?
***

The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
***** better than we deserve
**** better than most motion pictures
*** actually worth your valuable time
** as horrible as most stuff on TV
* makes you quietly pray for bulletins

But what matters Herc’s opinion? The Hollywood Reporter says:

… "The Con" breaks from the gate looking very much like a contender itself, boasting all the requisite trappings (human drama, underdogs, competitive fire, driving soundtrack) to make for appointment viewing. Of course, I thought the same thing about "Next Great Champ" and it went belly-up halfway through. …

Variety says: