{"id":333483,"date":"2025-12-09T00:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333483\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T00:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:44:09","slug":"ultimate-fighter-contender-series-find-new-broadcast-home-after-leaving-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333483\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultimate Fighter, Contender Series find new broadcast home after leaving ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Ultimate Fighter and Dana White\u2019s Contender Series officially have a new broadcast home starting in 2026 after the UFC\u2019s current deal with ESPN comes to a close at the end of December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Both shows are joining the lineup at Paramount+ alongside the rest of the UFC\u2019s programming, which includes all of the UFC Fight Night cards as well as the major numbered events kicking off with UFC 324 on Jan. 24. Unlike the UFC\u2019s deal with ESPN, which still included pay-per-view, all programming is now available on Paramount+ at no additional cost to subscribers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The announcement was made during CCXP in Brazil on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As one of the longest running reality shows in history, The Ultimate Fighter continues to move forward after helping to bring the UFC to prominence when the show first launched in 2005. Numerous champions and title contenders were first featured on TUF and it doesn\u2019t appear that\u2019s changing with the UFC now moving to Paramount.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The same goes for DWCS, which has become one of UFC CEO Dana White\u2019s favorite pieces of programming that the company produces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Each season of the Contender Series features episodes with five fights spread across numerous divisions with athletes earning the chance to compete in front of White and other UFC executives such as matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. At the end of each installment, White announces which fighters earn a UFC contract with future champions such as Sean O\u2019Malley, Jamahal Hill and Jack Della Maddalena all getting their start on Contender Series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While both series are moving to Paramount, there was no word when TUF or DWCS might debut in 2026. But now the shows are officially part of the UFC lineup headed to Paramount after the promotion inked a historic seven year deal worth $7.7 billion to move from ESPN to Paramount starting in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Fighter and Dana White\u2019s Contender Series officially have a new broadcast home starting in 2026 after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-333483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}