Major League Fishing Championship to Air on CBS Sports
Category: press release
May 7th, 2015 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified May 7th, 2015 at 12:00 AM
Jack Link’s Major League Fishing on Saturday, May 9, will make its fifth appearance on a major television network when the Championship Round of the Shell Rotella Challenge Cup airs at 3 p.m. ET on CBS Sports. The hour-long episode was filmed in and around Shreveport, Louisiana.
“We’re extremely pleased to again have the opportunity to showcase Major League Fishing on a traditional major network. With every new show we seem to be attracting more viewers, as well as viewers that don’t fall into the ‘fishing fan’ category,” said Major League Fishing General Manager Jim Wilburn.
“Attracting a broader audience has been one of Major League Fishing’s goals all along. Appearing on the CBS Sports helps us achieve that goal.”
Major League Fishing had tremendous success on a recent CBS Sports airing. In February, Major League Fishing’s telecast of the General Tire Summit Cup championship from Waterville, Maine, attracted more than 1.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen, a ratings measurement system that ranks it as one of the top-performing fishing shows in television history.
Major League Fishing is an enterprise developed through a joint effort between Outdoor Channel and two dozen of the world’s best-known bass fishing anglers. Major League Fishing takes viewers inside the boats of the competitors as they battle each other during a six-day event set in various locations across the country. The anglers utilize a demanding format that allows them to weigh all the “scorable bass” they catch. Unlike other competitive fishing events, leaderboards in the boats allow anglers to know their standings at all times.
Produced by Winnercomm Inc. – an award-winning independent sports production company and division of Outdoor Channel, which is part of Outdoor Sportsman Group – Major League Fishing features such renowned anglers as Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese, Mike Iaconelli and Gary Klein.
“This is the second time this year that Major League Fishing has aired on CBS Sports and we are pleased to be able to further demonstrate the broad appeal of riveting competition found in this unique bass fishing tournament,” said Jim Liberatore, President and CEO, Outdoor Sportsman Group Networks division. “We look forward to continuing to develop innovative programming, such as Jack Link’s Major League Fishing, to entertain the more than 130 million-plus active outdoor adventure participants and armchair observers in the U.S.”
Whereas the CBS Sports finale is a one-hour show, viewers can tune into Outdoor Channel on Saturdays at 2 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4 p.m. ET and Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET to see two-hour episodes of the competition that takes place in the Shreveport region on Jack Link’s Major League Fishing. Outdoor Channel airs each competition in its entirety, including the championship rounds and a tips and techniques episode featuring the finalists. Moreover, Major League Fishing GEICO Selects, the new hour-long series launched this year on Outdoor Channel, features 24 new anglers competing for one of six spots in a corresponding MLF Cup event. The show can be seen Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET, Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, and Sundays at 7 a.m. ET.