HBO Sports Regains Its Reality Star
Award-winning 24/7 series follows Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s return to the ring
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/22/2009 2:00:00 AM
After a two-year, Brett Favre-like "retirement" from boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is heading back to the ring. But first, he is heading back to reality television as the star of HBO Sports' award-winning 24/7 series.
The latest installment, debuting Aug. 29, features the lead-up to Mayweather's Sept. 19 comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather has led the series to its two highest-rated runs in the past, but HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg says this edition is important both for boxing and Mayweather himself.
"This 24/7 is really critical to Floyd because he needs to be re-launched," Greenburg says. "It is important for the sport; boxing needs personalities. But it has been two years, and that's a long time. You're really asking people to go into their memory bank."
During Mayweather's time away, in which he pursued becoming a more mainstream personality, he competed in another reality series, ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Greenburg calls that experience a good career move.
"Anytime 20 million people are seeing you on TV, there will be a certain launching pad that comes with that," he says.
But Greenburg didn't love all of Mayweather's decisions during his hiatus, such as the time the boxer headlined a WWE WrestleMania event.
"I
just wondered about chipping away at his credibility," he says. "[WWE
chief] Vince McMahon is a wonderful man and a great entrepreneur, but I
second-guessed that one for Floyd."
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