• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 11, 2005

Building upon its effort to bring top-shelf and original content online, Yahoo! Tuesday, along with Mark Burnett Productions, announced plans to produce a day of professional boxing exclusively for the Internet crowd. TV viewers of NBC's "The Contender" are being encouraged to vote for contestants of the reality show--who will then fight three separate bouts, which will be Webcast on May 24, the same day the culminating main event will air on NBC.

Jim Moloshok, senior vice president of entertainment and content acquisition at Yahoo!, hopes that Mark Burnett's production staff, which is filming the online broadcast for Yahoo!, will raise the quality of the event to a level as yet unmatched online. "People at work who are getting ready for the night's big fight will be watching a prime time-TV-quality broadcast with color commentary by Sugar Ray Leonard on their computers!" Moloshok enthused. "This is going to bring Internet entertainment to a whole new level."

Toyota Motor Sales USA--which is also sponsoring the TV broadcast on NBC--and Intel have already have signed on as official sponsors of the site, contender.yahoo.com, while Yahoo! continues talks with other potential advertisers, Moloshok said.

Following Sunday's TV broadcast of "The Contender," some 40,000 viewers went online to Yahoo! and voted for six contestants who failed to qualify to compete for the TV show's $1 million grand prize. Users are being encouraged to vote again after this week's show. Depending upon voter's choices, the six boxers will fight in three matches at Caesars Palace on May 24.

"It's totally interactive because we've got users playing the role of fight managers when they vote," said Moloshok.

Adding to the drama, the fights are not exhibition matches, and will be scored on fighters' professional records.

This deal is the latest in a string of partnerships between Mark Burnett Productions and Yahoo!'s new head of media, Lloyd Braun, in what is widely perceived as an effort by both to merge television with the Internet.

Last week, Mark Burnett and Yahoo! announced a multi-season extension to their relationship for future versions of "The Apprentice." The deal includes versions of "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump, as well as Martha Stewart. The agreement also allows for any future versions of "The Apprentice" following the 2005-2006 television season.

"The relationship with Mark Burnett has given Yahoo! the ability to explore a greater range of content and advertising integration than ever before," Jim Moloshok said at the time. "Programming 'The Apprentice' across the Yahoo! network has allowed us to provide users with a unique online experience and to give 'The Apprentice' the broadest reach possible in front of an advertiser's ideal demos."

The crossover relationship has also gone a long way to market name-brand products, Moloshok said. "The Haines t-shirts featured on the show to celebrate their 50th anniversary sold out within 12 hours from people searching through Yahoo! Shopping," he said. For the show's Pontiac episode, nearly 1,000 viewers reserved Pontiac Solstice cars on Yahoo!'s site by the end of the program. Another 4,000 reserved cars by the end of the evening.

The official Web sites for the fourth and fifth seasons of "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump and the first season of "The Apprentice" with Martha Stewart will include video produced exclusively for Yahoo!; extended versions of highlighted moments from each week's show; "Pick-Em" fantasy games; mobile content for phones; exclusive photos and three-dimensional virtual tours of the "Apprentice" suites and Trump's boardroom; original editorial written by former "Apprentice" candidates; personal photo albums; special Yahoo! Messenger IMVironments featuring Donald Trump and Martha Stewart; blogs from "Apprentice" participants, and more.