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Since God invented cavemen, men have been fighting over women. And when I say fighting I don’t mean standing in row of other dudes in front of a bunch of cameras and three-point lighting waiting for some girl to hand you a rose. I’m talking about straight up, physical, knock-down drag-out fighting. In this age of reality television, you see men doing so many things to gain the approval of a beautiful, classy woman. Yet, however cute and innocent they try to make it, it all goes back to man’s primitive nature to engage in physical combat over the fairer sex. I think it is time to showcase these raw emotions as they really are which is why I wish to take the show The Ultimate Fighter, and put it into a reality show context. The working title for my concept for now shall be The Ultimate Mate.
The Ultimate Fighter is a weekly television show on SpikeTV (the network for men) that showcases mix-martial arts action of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) promotion. Not to be confused with professional wrestling, UFC has real, unscripted fights. On this show, professional mix-martial artists that have yet to make a big name for themselves are situated in a house outside of Las Vegas, Nevada and compete against each other for the title of “The Ultimate Fighter”, winning a six-figure, multi-fight contract with the UFC, which is considered to be NFL or NBA of mix-martial fighting. So there are already some elements of reality television within the Ultimate Fighter. However, there isn’t as much interpersonal drama as there is in most reality television shows. The focus always remains on the fight, not necessarily on roommate drama. These television shows are meant to promote UFC’s bi-monthly pay-per-view events.
The idea to change up this show would be to change what the mix martial artists are fighting for. In The Ultimate Fighter they are fighting over a UFC contract. In The Ultimate Mate they are fighting over a woman. I would compare it to the successful ABC show, the Bachelorette. The Bachelorette features a beautiful, successful, single woman looking to choose a mate amongst twenty five bachelors. In order to decide which one she wants, she has the men do random odd jobs and activities and weeds out the ones she’s not pleased with until she’s down to the one she wants. Rather than having the decision be left up to the woman, I say let the men fight it out themselves.
The show would be set up as follows. The show will start with thirty-two MMA fighters, all potential mates for the bachelorette. After getting to know our candidates, they will all be paired off for a total of sixteen matches. Then a single-elimination tournament will begin. Those who win their match will advance, while those who lose will be booted out of the competition. The matches will be contested under standard MMA rules and feature an octagon-ring surrounded by a cage, just like in The Ultimate Fighter. They fight and fight until it is down to just two and the winner of that match will crowned be the “ultimate mate,” and get to walk off with the woman of choice.
The show would be more than just fighting though. As the show progresses these muscle-bound warriors will have the chance to woo the bachelorette with not just their physical prowess, but how romantic they can be as well. For example, some will get the opportunity to take the bachelorette on a date. While these won’t affect who advances and who doesn’t it’s a chance for these gladiators to show off their personality in an attempt to increase fan support.
Obviously this could cause some controversy and might offend some people – particularly women who don’t like the idea of being viewed as trophies -- but like all other reality shows it’ll be done in such a cheesy and campy way that it’s really hard to be offended by it. I believe the appeal of this concept is the combination of the drama in reality television and the thrill of watching high-impact athletic competition. Such a combination could attract a very wide demographic of viewers and I think could be quite successful. Who will be the ultimate mate???
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