When National Basketball Association All-Star Kevin Durant suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the first half of Game 5 of June’s NBA Finals, it all but ended the Golden State Warriors’ two-year championship reign. Without Durant, the two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, the Warriors went on to lose the championship to the Toronto Raptors in six games.

The devastating injury will keep former NBA Most Valuable Player Durant — who two months later would sign a long-term deal to play for the Brooklyn Nets — off the basketball court for most of the 2019-20 season. But it hasn’t hampered his drive into the entertainment arena as an executive producer and entrepreneur. And that push has earned him recognition as the 2019 Multichannel News Athlete of the Year among men. 

From serving as executive producer of ESPN Plus’s sophomore sports series The Boardroom, to his hands-on development of Fox Sports’s prison sports documentary Q Ball and the upcoming scripted drama series Swagger for Apple TV+, Durant is looking to match the success he’s had in his fruitful 12-year NBA career.

“In addition to being a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP, Kevin Durant is an accomplished entrepreneur with a deep passion for storytelling,” NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum said. “Kevin’s investments across sports, media, technology and philanthropy demonstrate his wide variety of interests and his commitment to making an impact in communities around the world.”

Also Read: Thirty Five Ventures‘ Inside Game

Durant, 31, who was drafted second by the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the 2007 NBA Draft, has already had what is arguably a hall of fame career. Heading into this season, the 10-time All-Star has already won a Rookie of the Year Award, two Olympic Gold Medals and four NBA scoring titles to go with his two NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVP awards as a member of the Warriors.

Penchant for Storytelling

While Durant has made his mark in the NBA, TV industry executives said his talents go beyond the basketball court. Durant in 2016 co-founded media company Thirty Five Ventures with business partner Rich Kleiman with the idea of telling stories through the lens of sports, according to Thirty Five Ventures general manager Sarah Flynn.

“As the business of sports has changed, fans want and expect more access to what goes on off the court/field, and it's important to show them the way that athletes and executives are really talking about their business,” Flynn said. “Kevin is extremely involved in the process.”

Also Read: Simone Biles Is on Point

Former NBA player Jay Williams said Durant — through content from Thirty Five Ventures — is one of several elite athletes, including fellow NBA star LeBron James, who are breaking down barriers in the sports documentary genre by developing content that allows athletes to provide an unfiltered point of view about issues on and off the field of play.

“Kevin Durant can now say, ‘Hey, you might not like exactly what I have to say, but this is how I feel,’” said Williams, who played for the Chicago Bulls in the early 2000s and currently co-hosts ESPN Plus’s sports documentary series The Boardroom, executive produced by Durant.

The Boardroom, in which Durant and prominent business executives talk about the business of sports from the perspective of those in the trenches, will launch its second season in February 2020. ESPN Plus vice president of original content Brian Lockhart said Durant’s input and flexibility in creating content that offers a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the business of sports has been instrumental in the show’s development. In its six-episode first season, The Boardroom delved into such topics as the burgeoning sneaker industry, team ownership, athlete brand-building and player development and the business of social media.

“I think the show is driven by a genuine curiosity by Kevin in the topic as he himself was going through learning what the broader business industry had to offer,” Lockhart said. “He wanted to have a conversation that included an athlete’s perspective in that space.”

Durant has also turned his passion for basketball into several other television projects. Thirty Five Ventures recently teamed with Imagine Entertainment, CBS Television Studios and Apple to produce Swagger, a scripted series based on Durant’s early basketball career, for Apple TV+. Actor Winston Duke (Black Panther, Us) will star in the series, which has already begun production.

Durant also helped turn a 2015 visit he made with the Golden State Warriors to San Quentin State Prison in California into a Fox Sports documentary, Q Ball, which debuted on Fox Sports in May after a brief theatrical run.

Hands-On Producer

Q Ball director Michael Tolajian said Durant was enthusiastic to get behind the project, which chronicled the lives of incarcerated basketball players at the state penitentiary. Durant participated in the editing for the project, and also filmed more than a dozen promos and clips promoting the documentary that he personally shared through social media.

“Almost instantaneously they responded positively and wanted to be involved in the project as executive producers and help us create and promote the show,” said Tolajian, who also serves as Fox Sports Films senior vice president. “It wasn’t just about him throwing his name on the project — he had been to San Quentin and he was passionate about it, so he was able to be involved early on creatively on the theme of the project. We couldn’t ask for a better partnership than to have someone who believes in the project … it was very much a win-win all the way around.”

Tolajian also said he thinks Durant has a bright future in the entertainment business once he hangs up his sneakers.

“I think his interest in entertainment is genuine, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t continue,” he said. “If and when he has another idea, believe me, we want to hear it.”

Added ESPN Plus’s Lockhart: “I can tell just by interacting with him that he has a passion for creating content, whether it’s The Boardroom or his new Apple TV+ scripted series, I see him being super excited about taking that next step in his career whenever the NBA career is over.

“I believe that he would love to be doing more in the entertainment space ... but he’s still very focused on his primary career,” Lockhart said. 

Any questions or doubts about who is the greatest gymnast of all time were arguably put to rest in October when Simone Biles earned her record-setting 25th world medal and 19th world gold medal — the most for any gymnast, woman or man — during the 2019 World Championships in Germany.

If that feat wasn’t enough, Biles during the championships executed two never-before-completed skills on the balance beam and floor exercise, respectively, adding to the growing list of now four original gymnastics moves named after her.

Next summer, she will look to build on her G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) status when she leads the United States women’s gymnastics team into competition at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

In between her eye-popping, medal-winning performances in the gymnastics arena, Biles has found time to build her burgeoning brand within the television industry. Whether it's sliding across the dance floor on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, serving as executive producer on a Lifetime original film about her short but inspiring life or doing a semi-twist backflip before millions of viewers prior to throwing out the ceremonial first pitch during Game 2 of the 2019 World Series, Biles’s incredible athletic prowess continues to amaze and captivate in sports and entertainment. 

It has also earned her recognition as Multichannel News's 2019 woman Athlete of the Year. 

One-of-a-Kind Resilience

“Aside from the fact that she is indisputably the greatest of all time in this sport, I think that her attitude and determination, the ability the rise above her struggles makes her a one-of-a-kind athlete,” Tia Maggini, vice president of programming for Lifetime Original Movies, said.

Biles, 22, who last week was honored as the E! People’s Choice Awards “Game Changer of 2019,” burst onto the sports scene three years ago as one of the “Final Five” U.S. women’s gymnastics team members who claimed at least one medal in every event during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The petite Biles won a record four gold medals in gymnastics while helping NBC generate big ratings for her performances.

RELATED: Kevin Durant Scripts a Career Beyond Basketball

Biles’s first gold medal win in the gymnastics team event averaged 33.4 million viewers on Aug. 9, 2016 — NBC’s highest-rated night of its two-week Olympics coverage.

“Simone Biles personifies the Olympic spirit; she is an awe-inspiring and unifying force,” said NBC Sports Group chief marketing officer and executive vice president of content strategy Jenny Storms. “Her fierce dedication, coupled with her warmth and innate ability to motivate and connect with all viewers, demonstrates her unique capacity to transcend the hearts and minds of the broad and diverse Olympic audience.”

Biles’s growing popularity among viewers would also translate outside of the gymnastics arena. In 2017, Biles was chosen as one of the contestants on ABC’s competition series Dancing with the Stars. Deena Katz, the series’ talent booker and co-executive producer, said the show caught lightning in a bottle by booking Biles less than a year after her record-setting Olympics performance.

“I considered Simone America’s sweetheart,” Katz said. “People are attracted to her, amazed and enamored by her, but America didn’t know that much about her. This is a girl America fell in love with and wanted to get to know better, so I was honored when she actually said yes to the show.”

Biles would dance her way into the semifinals, where she was eliminated in what Katz termed a “shocking” decision. “One of the other highest-rated shows that season was the night she got eliminated,” she said. “There was always buzz about her throughout the season. People loved her and she was a fan favorite on the show, so it was one of the more shocking eliminations we’ve ever had. We kind of assumed she would be making it into the finals.”

Last year, Biles served as executive producer of a Lifetime biopic about her life titled The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar. Based on Biles’s book Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, the movie chronicled her struggles and triumphs in a fashion that appealed to Lifetime’s core female viewer, Maggini said. The movie premiered in May 2018 to 2.3 million viewers, finishing as one of Lifetime’s most-watched movies of the year, the network said.

“Simone’s story hit on a number of different levels,” Maggini said. “Her personal story about being adopted out of the foster care system was very inspiring and appealing to us, but what we were ultimately attracted to is Simone herself, her talent and her attitude. The fact that she’s able to be as dominant as she is, and yet do it effortlessly with a smile and a giggle, is incredible.”

Biles’s infectious personality, work ethic and near-flawless competitive performances have also helped the sport begin its recovery from the scandal surrounding former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to prison in 2018 for sexually abusing hundreds of athletes in his care, including Biles.

Joy of Competition

“One of the things that has been missing from gymnastics recently is a joy in what they are doing, given all that has transpired over the last few years,” said two-time U.S. women’s soccer gold medalist Julie Foudy, who earlier this year interviewed Biles for her ESPN Laughter Permitted podcast. “For her to do what she does with the joy that she does it is remarkable. She brings a joy that I think all gymnasts would love to have, and I think she shows what’s possible in that world.”

After her record-setting World Gymnastics performance, Biles now has the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics in her sights. NBC Sports’ Storms believes the best is yet to come for Biles.

“We look forward to witnessing Simone continue her historic journey in Tokyo, and help share her remarkable story as she lights up the screen with her extraordinary feats and natural charisma,” Storms said.

Added Foudy: “What she’s doing is so fun to watch — she defies gravity in so many different ways. She will be one of the [U.S. Olympics team’s] biggest stars this summer.”

Thirty Five Ventures, the vehicle Kevin Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman founded in 2016 to branch out into the entertainment field, already has several sports-themed shows to its credit, including ESPN+ documentary series The Boardroom and Swagger, a scripted series for Apple TV+ based on Durant’s experiences in youth basketball. Sarah Flynn, general manager of Thirty Five Ventures, spoke with Multichannel News about why Durant created the company and what its future plans for programming might be. Here’s an edited excerpt from that interview.

MCN: What is Kevin Durant looking to accomplish through his Thirty Five Ventures?
Sarah Flynn: Thirty Five Ventures is always looking to tell compelling stories primarily through the lens of sports. Sports is really a microcosm of the world itself, from culture to business to philanthropy, and through verticals like our sports business platform The Boardroom, we’ve really been able to explore that in new ways.

MCN: What does Kevin Durant bring to the table in terms of creating and developing original television content?
SF: Kevin has a natural curiosity and drive that fuels creative projects as much as it does his on-court world. He’s always learning, and wants to learn from the best in every industry. Partnering with Imagine Entertainment, Apple, ESPN and other networks has given us all the opportunity to do that while working on our original projects.

RELATED: Kevin Durant Scripts a Career Beyond Basketball

MCN: How involved is Kevin in the creative process of the shows Thirty Five Ventures is creating?
SF: Kevin is extremely involved in the process, and on many of our projects, it’s a unique opportunity for him to — for the most part — step out from in front of the camera and be more creative behind the scenes.

MCN: Will sports be the focus of Thirty Five Ventures’ original content or will the company look to create content within other genres?
SF: We live and breathe sports, so those stories are what we’re most immediately drawn to, but our interests are definitely not limited to sports, so there are certainly opportunities to create content across other verticals in the future.

When Serena Williams stepped out on the tennis court for the U.S. Open women’s final in September, she was seeking to complete one of sport’s most improbable returns to championship form.

She would ultimately lose to Naomi Osaka of Japan — and stir up controversy and headlines with a tirade against several controversial calls by chair umpire Carlos Ramos — but her defeat was arguably a win in itself for the 37-year-old-star. Less than a year before her Open appearance, Williams nearly died after giving birth to her first child.

Williams’s remarkable 2018 run both on the court and in her personal life played out on TV in an arguably unprecedented fashion. Her U.S. Open finals match against Osaka drew 3.1 million viewers on ESPN, up more than 30% from the 2017 women’s final telecast. It was the network’s third-most-watched U.S. Open telecast since ESPN began broadcasting the tournament in 2009 (it had shared rights with CBS through 2014).

“There’s no question about Serena’s ability to consistently drive tennis ratings like few other professional tennis players,” said Steve Badeau, senior vice president of research, Tennis Channel. “She competed in the most-watched match on Tennis Channel both this year and in 2017, and her participation routinely leads our best ratings at major events like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.”

Up Close and Personal

In May, her HBO documentary series Being Serena provided an intimate and unabashed look at the tennis star’s formerly private personal life, chronicling her pregnancy, her marriage to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and the birth of her daughter, Olympia.

“As one of the greatest athletes, male or female, in sports history, Serena’s successful run leading up to the U.S. Open, and certainly during the tournament, is all due to her drive, passion and willingness to succeed,” United States Tennis Association chair and president Katrina Adams said. “She certainly embodies what it means to be a champion both on and off the court.”

It would be hard for even a casual tennis fan not to know of Serena Williams’ groundbreaking tennis credentials over the past two decades. Since winning her first grand slam tennis title in 1999, Williams has arguably been the most dominant player in the history of the sport, winning a record 23 Grand Slam titles in tennis’s Open Era. Her on-court dominance has served up big ratings for her matches.

“Serena Williams has been in the national spotlight for more than 20 years as a trailblazer on and off the tennis court, and when she takes the court, she is must-see, and she moves the needle like few others ever have … not just in tennis but in all of sports,” ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions John Papa said.

Williams’ impressive U.S. Open ratings performance wasn’t even her first of the year. This past July, her appearance in the finals at Wimbledon — only her fourth tournament after giving birth — drew 2.6 million viewers, up 32% from 2017. It was the largest TV audience for the event since 2012, the year ESPN began televising the Wimbledon finals. “Serena has been part of many of ESPN’s most-watched tennis telecasts and remains a can’t-miss draw who everyone wants to see,” Papa said.

In May, Williams extended her appeal and brand beyond the tennis court by allowing cameras into her personal life and into the hospital room for the birth of her daughter as part of HBO’s documentary series Being Serena. The intimate look into Williams’ personal life was like was unlike any other sports documentary the network has done, executive vice president Peter Nelson said, but it was a no-brainer given Williams’s appeal and popularity.

“This was one of the only sports docuseries that’s ever been done that has a C-section on camera,” Nelson said. “When you see someone at the level of Serena Williams go through those challenges and fight through them, it’s very inspirational, and I don’t think people necessarily had seen her like that before. ”

Indeed, the documentary also highlighted complications that arose for Williams during her delivery, including life-threatening blood clots in her lungs.

“I almost died giving birth to my daughter, Olympia.” Williams wrote in a February CNN op-ed piece about her pregnancy. “Yet I consider myself fortunate.”

While HBO would not disclose audience numbers for Being Serena, the documentary introduced her to a new audience and showed a softer side of the ultracompetitive tennis star.

“This summer, fans were given an opportunity to get an inside glimpse from her documentary on her personal journey of becoming a mom,” USTA’s Adams said. “She represents a whole new side of inspiration amongst women from all walks of life and I think this is certainly appealing to all forms of media and will continue to be.”

Chasing Court’s Record

Williams is expected to take the court in 2019 in search of her elusive 24th Grand Slam title, which would match Margaret Court’s all-time record. Even as she gets older and with the challenges of being a new mother, HBO’s Nelson said it’s a good bet that Williams will ultimately achieve her goal — and big audiences will continue to tune in to see history made.

“To underestimate Serena Williams at any time is something that you do at your own peril,” he said.

For The Last Decade, golf has been looking for a superstar who could rise to the level of Tiger Woods, a legend who could transcend the sport, score victories on the links and draw millions of television viewers.

In 2018, it found that star: Tiger Woods. The phenom who took the sport by storm in the 1990s and 2000s with 79 PGA tour wins, but who has struggled through injuries and scandals in recent years, played his way back to pro golf’s upper echelon.

Woods’s improbable win at September’s PGA Tour Championship — in front of millions of viewers — capped off his return to the winner’s circle. It also earned him recognition as one of Multichannel News’s Athletes of the Year for 2018.

Woods’s victory in Atlanta ended a personal five-year tournament win drought. More important, it put him and golf back on top of the sports pages.

It also restored Woods’s personal brand to lofty levels — so much so that WarnerMedia later this month will roll the dice on a first of its kind golf pay-per-view event featuring a match between Woods and rival Phil Mickelson.

“We’ve seen that he continues to capture the imagination of viewers,” HBO executive vice president Peter Nelson said. “As he has reinvented his game, he has reinvented himself and his appeal.”

Meteoric Rise

Woods has been the sport’s biggest television draw since he burst on the pro golf scene in 1996 at age 20; he won his first major tournament, The Masters, a year later. But heading into 2018, the now 42-year-old Woods had been mostly absent from the PGA’s tournament leaderboards.

Years of injuries and a rash of personal scandals, including an embarrassing 2017 DUI arrest, threatened to permanently sidetrack his golf career.

“The way that his career collapsed added to the drama of his returning, and the fact that he was so far gone and removed from everything and came back, is very appealing for viewers,” TV sports consultant Lee Berke said. “When it comes to sports stars and celebrities, America gives people second chances.”

Woods found his stroke again this past summer, finishing second in the U.S. PGA Championship, his highest finish in a PGA major tournament in nine years. CBS, which aired the final rounds of the tournament, was the beneficiary of Woods’ resurrection, generating a 69% increase in household ratings for the tournament compared to the previous year, according to the network.

“There have been only a handful of athletes who can actually move the television ratings, and none of them have had as big an effect as Tiger Woods,” said CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus. “When he is in contention, the ratings go through the roof. It’s a guaranteed lock.”

In September, Woods won his first PGA tournament in five years, finishing first at the FedEx Cup playoffs’ Tour Championship tournament. In the process, Woods’ performance helped NBC and Golf Channel set ratings records.

NBC’s final-round coverage of the Tour Championship was the network’s mostwatched golf event since 1991 and the most-watched round in the history of the FedExCup Playoffs, which began in 2007. Overall, viewership for Golf and NBC’s four-day coverage was up over 130% over last year and finished as the most watched Tour Championship on record, NBC Sports Group said.

Woods’ overall presence on the golf scene in 2018 also helped Golf deliver its most watched year ever and NBC’s best year of PGA Tour coverage since 2006, per the programmer.

“The massive gallery that followed Tiger up the 18th fairway at his win at the Tour Championship was matched by record viewership across NBC Sports’ platforms this past year,” NBC Sports Group president of golf Mike McCarley said. “Golf is experiencing a surge in momentum with Tiger and the young stars of the Tiger-inspired generation atop leaderboards.”

Rebuilding the Brand

Berke said Woods was able to not only reinvent his golf game in 2018, but build his image as a popular brand back up as well. “There is such an obsession about him,” Berke said. “He has been able to develop a glamour and mystique around him, as well as a level of interest and performance that no one else in golf has been able to match.”

Woods’s brand is so appealing and so hot that WarnerMedia is producing a first-ever PPV golf match featuring Woods and Mickelson that will tee off on Black Friday (Nov. 23). The event will retail for a suggested $19.99 and will feature an 18-hole duel between the two golf superstars for a $9 million winner-take-all purse.

“We couldn’t have scripted [Tiger’s win] any better leading up to the event,” said Craig Barry, chief content officer for Turner Sports. “Tiger is one of the most iconic athletes ever in any sport, so we have an opportunity to create an event that can not only showcase Tiger as well as Phil, but can also create an opportunity to tell the narrative of [Tiger’s] story over the years.”

The matchup is so big that WarnerMedia-owned premium programmer service HBO is dusting off its award-winning 24/7 documentary series, typically slated for big pay-per-view boxing events, to follow both golfers as the match approaches.

“The mano-a-mano nature of this matchup, as well as the history of the rivalry and the legacy of both competitors almost necessitated us to do a 24/7 documenting a story like this,” HBO’s Nelson said. “It’s going to be a can’t miss-event.”

Added Berke: “There are very few brand names in golf. Tiger is one of them and Mickelson is the other, but of the two Tiger is the superstar.”

National Basketball Association superstar LeBron James may not have been able to repeat as league champion on the basketball court last spring, but that didn’t stop him from having a championship-caliber year in the entertainment arena.

“The King,” through his SpringHill Entertainment production company founded by James and childhood friend Maverick Carter, took several major steps in helping to secure his legacy off the court in the entertainment business with a number of content projects that cut across both the traditional television business and emerging digital platforms.

While the clock officially ran out this year on SpringHill’s first scripted series — Starz’s basketball-themed Survivor’s Remorse— the company is poised to take several more shots in the genre. SpringHill is reportedly working with HBO on a half-hour comedy about a Los Angeles sneaker store; with ABC on a comedy dubbed White Dave, starring actress Gabrielle Union; and with CBS on a comedy revolving around a sports agency.

Related:MCN Sports Brand of the Year | At USTA, Adams More Than Holding Serve

James has also played on the unscripted court with his CNBC series Cleveland Hustles, which provided local entrepreneurs a chance to realize their dreams while revitalizing a Cleveland neighborhood. James also flexed his game show muscles earlier this year, partnering with NBC for The Wall, which has earned a second season after averaging more than 6 million viewers during its freshman run.

On the digital front, James and Carter have created a platform for athletes to express themselves creatively through the Uninterrupted online network, which in 2015 received a re-ported $15.8 million investment from Warner Bros. and Turner Sports.

Network executives said the entertainment future is bright for the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, now and when he finally hangs up his sneakers.

“LeBron James’s desire to excel in the entertainment industry is no surprise to those who have watched him work tirelessly to become a transcendent basketball player and NBA champion,” said Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer. “Television and movie executives view him not just as an athlete but as a creative force who has the ability to help shape popular culture.”

Related: Reality TV’s Got Game

Indeed, Carter was quoted in a February ESPN the Magazine article as saying he and James have their eyes on the prize of creating an entertainment empire.

“LeBron and I have always been interested in the long game,” Carter said in the story. "And the long game here is to build a media company. To really, truly build a media company."

James and Carter have begun to realize their entertainment aspirations by being aggressive and involved in all aspects of their projects. “From the first time I met LeBron and Maverick, it was clear that they saw media as a way to have an impact in society, and that a media company could help them to have that impact,” Starz president of programming Carmi Zlotnik said.

An All-Position Player
Arguably James and SpringHill’s highest-profile project to date is Survivor’s Remorse, which ended its fourth and final season last month. Zlotnik said he was initially impressed with the attention to detail James paid to the series, which follows the exploits of a pro basketball star and his family from humble beginnings as he transitions to a big pro-hoops star.

Zlotnik recalled that James was very hands-on with regard to the pilot script for the series. “The producers went to LeBron’s house and LeBron recruited friends and family to pick parts to read together from the pilot script,” he said. “I wish I could have been a fly on the wall because it sounds like one of those very interesting situations that happens in the development of a show that no one knows about.”

It also didn’t hurt the show’s marketing and promotion efforts to have the LeBron James brand associated with the series. “LeBron as a personality helped sell the show because it’s so hard to cut through the cacophony that’s happening out in the media space,” said Zlotnik. “The fact that he has this huge fan base in social media is an attractive part about being in business with LeBron, Maverick and SpringHill.”

NBC Entertainment president of alternative and reality group Paul Telegdy also said James’s star power helped build momentum for NBC’s game show The Wall, in which contestants build cash prizes by correctly answering questions. James’s popularity has also helped the network extend The Wall internationally.

“The Wall is on in France, Italy, Poland and is being made in Brazil,” Telegdy said. “The success of the show is more than just the business in the U.S.; it’s about the rollout of a global brand.”

James was also heavily involved with The Wall, making sure the presentation on the screen worked to the benefit of both NBC and the James brand, according to Telegdy.

“The great thing about the partnership is that if at any point he had seen something that he had hated or that was against his brand, we would have found out about it immediately — he’s not a shy, silent partner,” Telegdy said. “He is incredibly down to earth and easy to talk to, and was able to communicate passion and the reasons why he was involved in a game show in a way we could communicate to our audience.”

With The Wall and several other potential projects lined up — Zlotnik said Starz is working with SpringHill on an unscripted series, Warriors of Liberty City, which chronicles the town of Liberty City, Fla. and its ability to turn out a high percentage of NFL football players — Telegdy said it won’t be long before content distributors are knocking on James’s door for a chance to play on the entertainment court with one of the NBA’s best and most exciting players ever.

“Get in line now,” Telegdy added. “We weren’t the first people to spot his talents, but we feel like champions for being in business with LeBron.”

In 2011, website TMZ quoted Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White as saying that the burgeoning mixed martial arts outfit would never allow women fighters to fight in its famed octagon.

Fast forward to today, and arguably the organization’s most popular and well-known fighter is Ronda Rousey, a 28-yearold woman who has taken the UFC and sports media by storm since she burst on the scene in 2012. She has changed the face of MMA while helping the company pin down impressive performances both inside the octagon and within the overall media arena.

“Ronda Rousey is the most popular athlete UFC has ever had — her popularity both inside and outside of the octagon has increased UFC’s appeal exponentially,” UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Multichannel News.

A HIT EVEN AT 1:30 A.M.

One only has to look at last month’s UFC 193 pay-per-view event to see the broad appeal of Rousey. While she lost her Nov. 14 UFC women’s bantamweight title fight to Holly Holm in a huge upset, the buildup and anticipation of that event rivaled any in the 14 years of the Zuffa LLC-owned UFC era and helped the show deliver a reported more than 1 million PPV buys.

Even in defeat, Rousey is a ratings winner. FS1’s Nov. 15 UFC 193 post-fight show drew nearly 500,000 viewers for a 1:30 a.m. ET telecast — a network record for a UFC after-event show and more than the 330,000 viewers FS1 averaged on a total-day basis in October.

Industry observers said much of UFC’s current PPV and TV momentum can be attributed to Rousey, who has become as well-known outside the UFC through her numerous TV and movie appearances as she is inside the octagon for her winning prowess and devastating armbar submission hold.

“There are certain people who just have it,” Glenn Jacobs, senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s SportsCenter, said. “She appeals to a number of people on a number of different fan bases on several levels. She’s tremendously compelling, whether she’s in the ring fighting or appearing at a public event.”

Her knockout loss to Holm notwithstanding, Rousey — the recipient of Multichannel News’s female Athlete of the Year Award — has become arguably the most well-known woman athlete today. Over the last 12 months Rousey has become a media darling, appearing in everything from video games (UFC 2) to TV (WWE’s WrestleMania 31) to movies (Furious 7 and Entourage). She is set to star in MGM’s reboot of the 1989 movie drama Road House in the lead role made famous by the late Patrick Swayze.

“She has the skills, she has the looks and she has a way of presenting herself in front of a camera,” Bas Rutten, co-host of AXS TV’s weekly mixed-martial-arts news show Inside MMA, said. “Combine that with the skill to destroy opponents in the cage and you have a complete package.”

Her broad appeal is not lost on UFC. The organization featured Rousey fights as the main event in three of its 11 pay-per-view cards this year. Only UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier appeared in as many main events.

“Not only has she influenced fight fans, women and young girls around the world, she also transcends mainstream pop culture and brings in a new demographic of fans to watch our events and engage with our brand,” UFC’s Fertitta said.

Read about MCN's Male Athlete of the Year, Floyd Mayweather.

ESPN on Oct. 7 had Rousey host its 6 p.m. SportsCenter show — the first female athlete ever to do so. Jacobs said that Rousey’s SportsCenter appearance attracted an extremely high level of buzz across social-media platforms.

“Ronda is one of those people who rates — we’re not just asking anyone to come in and host SportsCenter,” ESPN’s Jacobs said. “We found Ronda Rousey content works across all of our platforms — on TV, on digital, and on social media — because she is so compelling and appeals to so many people.”

Indeed, on social media Rousey has punched up more than 2 million Twitter followers and more than 9.7 million likes on Facebook, more than popular current male UFC champions Cormier and Conor McGregor.

But it’s in the octagon where Rousey’s rise to stardom began. Rousey — who turned pro in 2011 after becoming the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing — became a fighting sensation known for taking out her opponents in short order. She initially appeared as UFC’s first female fighter in 2013 and quickly won her initial bouts — five within the first round and two within 20 seconds — before her loss to Holm.

“Don’t all athletes who break into great celebrity start with winning?” Fox Sports president and chief operating officer Eric Shanks said. “It’s pretty undeniable that Ronda walked all over anyone that was in the weight class until her last fight. The incredible run that she had is the foundation for the celebrity that she is.”

ESPN’s Jacobs added that Rousey doesn’t get enough credit for her determination in breaking into what once was a male-dominated mixed martial arts sport.

“Ronda is the reason why there are women fighters in the UFC,” he said. “She’s essentially built women’s MMA in the UFC and I think she deserves a lot of credit for that.”

Even Holm gave Rousey props for propelling mixed martial arts and women’s fighting to unprecedented heights in an interview with TMZ Sports two days after her knockout win over the former champion.

“Ronda has been a very dominant champ and has taken the sport to new levels,” she told TMZ. “This fight wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t accomplish what she accomplished.”

Her domination in the octagon turned into ratings gold for the UFC and Fox Sports in 2015. Two of FS1’s four most watched UFC PPV preliminary telecasts of all time were for 2015 events in which Rousey was the PPV headliner, each averaging more than 1.3 million viewers, according to Fox.

Online, Rousey accounted for 12.5 million page views on FoxSports.com over the last four months. In addition, Rousey drove 59% of the site’s 21.4 million page views for UFC editorial in the six months leading up to the Nov. 14 Rousey-Holm fight.

“It’s even more impressive when you consider it was Dana who said women would never fight in the UFC,” Shanks said. “Now, their biggest star is a woman in a year that has been arguably been one of the greatest in women’s sports.”

Rousey’s tough background — she has been very open about being raised by a single mother after her father committed suicide — has helped make her popular among non-MMA fans, he added.

“When athletes do that it makes them more human because everyone has their struggles, and Ronda has the platform speak up about it and probably help a lot of other young women and girls through it,” Shanks said.

HOPING FOR A SEQUEL

Rousey would continue to rate with fans despite her recent loss, Shanks said. While it’s unclear if and when Rousey will return to the octagon, he said that sports fans love comeback stories and Rousey’s will be a compelling one that should ultimately win her more fans.

“It’s hard to wear the crown of invincibility … there were a lot of people who fell off the Ronda bandwagon after the loss,” Shanks said. “Unlike a lot of movies, sequels in MMA and combat sports usually outdraw the first edition, so this sequel undoubtedly will be bigger than the first. I think that will be a driving force with Ronda to get ready to become champion again.”

Added ESPN’s Jacobs: “People love a redemption story. Her story has changed: she used to be on a ‘she’s so dominant and can’t be touched’ track. Now she has the chance to be on the ‘coming back and facing adversity’ track — I still think that is a compelling track to be on.”