After a fall littered with failed reality shows like ""The Will"" on CBS and ""My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss"" on Fox, NBC's ""The Contender,"" which is carrying the largest price tag of any new reality show ever, more than $2 million an episode, is certain to be greeted with skepticism.

How it fares could ultimately affect the commitment by networks to future reality programs. And yet the show is seemingly being used as cannon fodder.

After a special 90-minute opening episode on Feb. 21, NBC, starting on March 1, is going to throw ""The Contender"" in head to head with Fox's powerhouse talent competition ""American Idol,"" on Tuesday nights at 8. Given how ""Idol"" has dispatched competitors in the past, this is a match that has all the marks of a one-round knockout.

Of course, that is not how Mark Burnett sees it. Mr. Burnett - the leading producer of reality shows, with ""Survivor"" and ""The Apprentice"" to his credit - is unflinchingly buoyant about ""The Contender,"" which, he promised, will be as emotionally involving as anything he has done.

The format sets up two teams of middleweight fighters who wind up battling each other in five-round bouts (edited down to about six minutes of action.) Two finalists will fight live in Las Vegas for $1 million.

Mr. Burnett, who labels his programs ""unscripted dramas"" rather than reality shows, said that the essence of ""The Contender"" was not the boxing but the interpersonal stories between the boxers and their family members. ""We have fantastic characters here,"" he said.

Mr. Burnett's partner in the series, Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the principals in DreamWorks SKG, went so far as to call the show ""a metaphor for all of us"" because it presents a group of people doing everything they can to achieve a real-life goal. ""They are not isolated on an island in some form of competition,"" Mr. Katzenberg said, alluding to the ""Survivor"" format. ""This is really about their careers, their future.""

At least some part of NBC'S strategy in scheduling the program against ""American Idol"" has to do with the recognition that the audience for the Fox show is dominated by teenage girls and some older women. Boxing might be seen as counterprogramming to men.

Contrary to expectations that such a program would appeal only to a few male boxing fans, Mr. Katzenberg said that it had tested well with ""men and women, white collar and blue collar, young and old."" The reason, he said, is that ""it packs an emotional wallop.""

That is certainly his and Mr. Burnett's hope, because they have more than the usual reasons for wanting ""The Contender"" to succeed. They have sold the show aggressively and, in a highly unusual arrangement, negotiated a direct cut of its advertising revenue. Conrad Riggs, Mr. Burnett's partner in Mark Burnett Productions, said he had sold three sponsorships in the program to Toyota, PepsiCo (for its Gatorade and Sierra Mist brands) and Home Depot. A fourth sponsor will be added for the live finale, he said.

All will participate in product placement and integration in the series, practices that Mr. Burnett has exploited with enormous success on his other shows. The companies will have their names and logos displayed in the boxing ring, and some of their products will be seen or used in the series. (For example, the fighters will drink plenty of Gatorade.)

Mr. Riggs called it a ""mini-Olympics model"" with the advertisers paying special fees to be associated with the events and to have exclusivity in certain categories, like cars. He did not disclose figures on the deals, though the sponsors are also buying a number of commercials in each episode at prices around $250,000 for each commercial.

The production team has an even bigger goal in mind for this series - a strategy to resurrect boxing as a sport. The two producers, who said they first became involved out of a desire to let good fighters have a chance at legitimate success, said they foresaw promoting big-money fights between boxers from their newly created stable. The money could come, Mr. Burnett said, in everything from network specials to pay-per-view events.

""The Contender"" has this notion in common wit"