September 17, 2009

By By Steven Schwankert, Beijing

Taiwan pop band Mayday will star in a reality show produced by the National Football League and China Central Television, the NFL has announced.

The American football league is using Mayday's interaction with NFL players, fans and cheerleaders in the U.S. as an entry point for developing a fan base in China. The 16-episode show will air on CCTV-5 -- China's main state broadcaster's sports channel -- once per week on Thursday nights beginning Oct. 29. The show will also serve as a lead-in to a 30-minute, Chinese-language football highlights program, which debuts Thursday night.

Mayday is one of China and Taiwan's most popular bands. The five-person group has sold approximately one million albums around Asia since their start in 1997.

The NFL has struggled to find a sustained in audience in China. However, 2.2 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLIII live in February. Plans for an exhibition game in August 2007 were postponed until 2009, but that rescheduled contest never took place.

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