Superstar reality-TV producer Mark Burnett is doing a new show for Spike TV, searching for the next big superstar in rodeo with Toughest Cowboy, officials said Monday.
The new eight-episode, one-hour sports competition series premieres Jan. 29 at 11 p.m.
“The athletes on Toughest Cowboy are living icons who take unbelievable risks every time they enter the arena,” Burnett, president of Mark Burnett Productions, said in a prepared statement. “We are excited to bring their stories to the Spike audience as they fight to secure their American dream in a competition that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.”
Emanating from venues in major markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Columbus, Raleigh, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Toughest Cowboy features 12 daring competitors in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. These contestants must ride in three dangerous disciplines each night – bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding – an unprecedented test of endurance in modern rodeo competition.
One competitor will be eliminated each week in a sudden elimination bull ride match, with the ultimate Toughest Cowboy Champion winning the deed to a spectacular ranch in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming.
“We are thrilled to be in business with one of the true legends in the television industry,” John Griffin, Spike TV’s vice president of programming, said in a prepared statement. “The high-action sport of rodeo will be the perfect complement to our Thursday lineup following TNA wrestling.”
Emmy-award winner Burnett, behind such landmark series Survivor and The Apprentice, serves as executive producer for Toughest Cowboy.
