Last year, some of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry joined forces to create a TV reality show called “The Contender.” The venture was spearheaded by Mark Burnett (who’s best known for having created “Survivor” and “The Apprentice”) and movie executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. Show business veterans Jeff Wald, Sylvester Stallone, and Sugar Ray Leonard are also equity participants.

The show tracks the efforts of 16 professional fighters as they compete in a boxing tournament for a grand prize of $1 million. NBC is paying a higher price per episode for “The Contender” than has ever been paid for a TV reality show, and it has backed the project with a huge promotional budget. But on February 14, reality intervened. Najai Turpin, a 23-year-old boxer from Philadelphia who had lost in the first round of the competition, shot himself to death.

Prior to “The Contender,” Turpin had a professional record of 12 wins and 1 loss with 8 knockouts. By all accounts, he was a hard worker, a good person, and a quality fighter. He also kept a lot inside.

TV “reality” shows put a great deal of stress on their participants. High-pressure situations are constructed to entertain the viewing public. Contestants live in a fishbowl, where every mistake and embarrassing moment are magnified.

Also, unlike most reality shows,”The Contender” has the potential to impact the real jobs of its contestants. If a truck driver goes to the South Pacific for some “Survivor” fun and games, his old life is there for him when the show is over. Fighters who appear on “The Contender” are precluded by contract from plying their trade outside the confines of the show for almost a year.

Because of these and other pressures, both “The Contender” and “The Next Great Champ” (its rival on Fox) administered psychological tests to prospective fighters in the form of written questions and a personal interview. The tests were administered by an outside group and sought to determine the fighters’ ability to deal with stress, anger management skills, and their predisposition to depression and other forms of mental illness.

In the case of “The Next Great Champ,” close to three dozen candidates were tested. One insider recalls, “There were a couple of guys who we liked a lot who we lost because of the psychological testing.”

As the selection process for “The Contender” narrowed, each of the fighters vying to be among the 16 finalists was similarly tested. “The Contender” test was graded on a scale of 1 to 6. Most of the fighters chosen as finalists scored a 6; Najai Turpin scored a 3.

“They knew going in that there was a problem with Najai,” says one person familiar with the test results who asked to remain anonymous. “I don’t know how far the word spread internally. I’m sure there were a lot of people who didn’t know about the results; and obviously, no one thought that Najai would commit suicide. But the tests showed that he was a fragile guy.”

Some boxing fans like “The Contender.” Others find it silly and boring. The most serious criticism of the show is that it’s phony. Boxing, in the ring, is the most basic and honest of all sports. But “The Contender” is contrived on its face.

Reality in boxing is Don King handing former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman a duffel bag filled with cash to lure him away from rival promoter Cedric Kushner. Reality in boxing is Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward spilling pints of each other’s blood. In the real world of boxing, 16 fighters don’t live together in a beautiful training center and do everything that they’re told to do when they’re told to do it.

Moreover, the fights that end each episode of “The Contender” are flawed. Five rounds of boxing are reduced to five minutes of cut-and-paste action – with a good portion of that time devoted to camera shots of Stallone, Leonard, and others in the crowd. The bouts are accompanied by background music that builds to a crescendo, sound effects that exaggerate the power of punches, and loud roars from fans whose mouths appear closed. There’s no way to know what the fights were really like because they are edited in a way that makes it impossible for viewers to know who really won.

There’s also a significant size differential among the fighters. Some, like Sergio Mora, are natural 160-pounders. But Turpin, who lost to Mora in the fourth episode, fought his last fight prior to the tournament at 150 pounds. Ishe Smith weighed in for his final pre-tournament bout at 146.

And the size differential could have been more lopsided. Paulie Malignaggi, whose last fight was at 139 pounds, is a talented junior-welterweight with personality, style, a big mouth, and a 19-0 record. In other words, he was perfect for “The Contender.”

“It was, ‘Paulie, we love you’ and ‘Paulie, you’re great,'” Malignaggi’s promoter, Lou DiBella, recalls. “But it was clear that they didn’t care about Paulie because, if you love a highly-skilled light-punching 140-pound fighter, you don’t try to put him in the ring with guys who weigh 160.”

These failings haven’t been lost on the general public. “The Contender” has been a ratings disappointment. “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” each averaged roughly 20,000,000 viewers per show. By contrast, The Contender started its run with 8,100,000 viewers and is now down around 6,700,000.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Philadelphia, Najai Turpin has become a symbol of “reality” in its truest sense. Percy “Buster” Custis is part of the city’s boxing fabric, having trained boxers there for 20 years. He started training Turpin when he was 12 years old and became the proverbial father figure in the young man’s life.

“I’m not blaming anyone,” Custis says. “Najai did what he did, but I’ll tell you a few things. When they wanted Najai on the show, they were calling me three and four times a day. But once they got him out there, they blocked the phones and he couldn’t even call me unless he got their permission to use the phone in their office. I think they let him call me once; that’s all. Under the contract he signed, he wasn’t allowed to talk about the fight afterward, so that was something he had to keep inside. And under the contract, he wasn’t allowed to fight again until the show ends. That’s a long time for a young man to stay away from something he loves.”

“Fighters want to fight,” Custis continues. “Sugar Ray Leonard came out of retirement three times because he wanted to fight. Boxing made Najai happy. And the Contender people wouldn’t let Najai fight for eight months after he lost. There’s no way to know what that did to his mind. I try to be positive about things. I try to look for the best in everyone, including the Contender people. But I know one thing. I’d never send another one of my guys to them.”

At the end of Episode 4, Sugar Ray Leonard appeared on camera and informed viewers of what he called “the heartbreaking news that Najai Turpin had passed away.” “The Contender” is a reality show. Why not tell viewers the truth? Najai Turpin put a bullet in his head.