‘Champ’ is defeated

Last month, the producers of “The Next Great Champ,” an unscripted series on Fox, beat back a lawsuit from rival producers who called it a rip-off show and tried to keep it off the air. The court victory was a brief moment of “Rocky”-like triumph for “Champ,” which features boxing great Oscar De La Hoya and a legion of unknown fighters.

But in TV, as in the ring, hope dies hard, and viewers have KO’d “Champ” in ways that raise questions about network TV’s rush to reality.

Fox on Friday quietly told stations that it was benching “Champ” after low ratings for the first four episodes. A spokesman said the network is considering filling the Tuesday time slot with another reality series, “Renovate My Family.”

Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman said in a statement that the show ultimately “proved too narrow for us.” She said Fox Sports Net would pick up the remaining episodes of “Champ,” adding, “In the end, it belongs on an outlet better suited to serve the boxing fan.”

Reality has lost some of its aura of invincibility lately, as ratings for NBC’s “Fear Factor” have declined and ABC’s “The Benefactor” and NBC’s “The Apprentice” opened to disappointing numbers.

The cancellation of “Champ” also raises questions about the ultimate fate of NBC’s “The Contender,” a boxing series with Sylvester Stallone. Over the summer, DreamWorks and Mark Burnett, producers of the series, filed suit against “Champ,” arguing that Fox violated state boxing regulations in a rush to get its show on the air.

“Contender” was set to premiere in November. Now it will premiere in early 2005. A weight loss show, “The Biggest Loser,” will take its fall spot.

NBC dismissed the notion that the demise of “Champ” had any bearing on its boxing series. Fox “rushed ‘Next Great Champ’ on the air in order to beat us, and I think it showed in terms of program quality,” said Mitch Metcalf, NBC’s senior vice president of program planning and scheduling.