Professional Roughstock Inc. and Rural Media Group signed a contract to add programming from the country’s fastest growing rodeo sports series to the RFD-TV network starting at 10 p.m. ET on Friday, May 3.
“We couldn’t be happier with the arrangement,” PRS president Spud Whitman said in a release. “This is a great step forward for our series which is growing faster than ever right now.”
The Professional Roughstock Series features the country’s top bareback, saddle bronc and bull riders who compete in live events across the country, according to a release from Rural Media. Event highlights will be brought to RFD-TV in the form of 30-minute programs on Friday nights, re-broadcast the following Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
“The addition of PRS to RFD-TV is the next step forward for us in our drive to bring more western sports and quality event programming to our viewers and fans,” Randy Bernard, CEO of Rural Media Group, said in the release, which said the PRS fare will run on RFD-TV for two years. “We look forward to further enhancing the popularity of the sport and to bringing PRS into more and more households through our strong cable and satellite distribution."
The first episode will be an introductory show. “Our goal is not only to entertain but to build a fan base for our series,” Whitman said in the release. “A big part of that is to help the broader RFD-TV audience understand what it takes to succeed in each of our disciplines; bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding.”
The broadcast team includes Whitman, a 5-time Professional Bull Riders World Finalist; Monty “Hawkeye” Henson, a 5-time World Saddle Bronc Champion; and Kelly Timberman, World Bareback Champion and multi-year National Finals Rodeo qualifier. Handling the play-by-play duties will be well-known veteran announcer Justin McKee. The PRS plans to produce 32 episodes this season, comprising 16 hours of original programming.
Existing equine competitive programming on RFD-TV includes such shows as All American Cowgirl Chicks, Cinchtown USA, Little Britches Rodeo, Women's Pro Rodeo Today and NRHA Today (for National Reining Horse Association).
