The New HIT of Reality TV... Cage Fighting!

Coming soon on your local CBS television station... (These quotes from this Reuter's news article explain the situation better than I can.)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS is bringing mixed martial arts, the bone-crunching combat sport popularly known as "cage fighting," to prime-time television this spring, the U.S. network said on Thursday.

Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.

But fierce punching, kicking, karate, judo and wrestling moves -- with no protective gear -- are still very much a part of the sport.

Beginning in April or May, CBS plans to broadcast four MMA events each year as two-hour live specials airing on Saturday nights, a time period once reserved for such family fare as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart" and "The Carol Burnett Show."

Kahl said CBS would broadcast its MMA matches as they are already presented on Showtime, with no special rules or alterations to tone down the level of violence.

"It is a sport, and it has violent elements. So does football, so does hockey," Kahl said. "If an injury does happen, we'll try to treat it as tactfully and tastefully as we can. But it's not something we're going to hype."

As if there is not enough graphic make believe violence on our local television stations, now we get to look forward to hearing "stay tuned for your local 11 o'clock news following Cage Fighter 4."

So in your opinion, where is this all headed? What content will be on our local TV stations 10 or 20 years from now? What are the next boundaries that will be crossed?