Don King couldn't have worked a better deal.

NBC will pay a reported $2 million per episode for a reality series about up-and-coming boxers from "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett, DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg and actor-director Sylvester Stallone, according to several news reports. The network won a bidding war with its rivals this week.

The $2 million-per-episode license fee is the highest ever paid for a new unscripted series and is as much as some scripted shows fetch. NBC now has to figure out how to make a profit from the show, called "The Contender."

The series will follow a group of young fighters trying to work their way up the rankings of professional boxing. Stallone will be a presence on screen as the fighters train for bouts and deal with their lives outside the ring.

ABC and FOX put in bids for the show that were well above $1 million per episode, sources tell the Los Angeles Times, but NBC's $2 million knocked out the competition. "With [Burnett's] track record, you are willing to pay a premium because this could potentially be a very lucrative business to be in," an NBC executive tells the paper.

Burnett produces "The Restaurant" and "The Apprentice," which has become a solid hit in recent weeks, for NBC in addition to "Survivor" for CBS. He also has pilot deals for scripted series at NBC and The WB.

The high license fee is something of a surprise because part of the appeal of unscripted shows is that they usually come cheap. Because such series don't work in reruns, NBC will have to figure out other ways to cover the per-episode cost.

The deal for "The Contender" includes a barter component, whereby the producers will buy several commercial spots per episode from NBC and sell them to advertisers. The network would then pocket a rebate to cover part of the license fee.