Mike Tyson to Host Reality Show on Animal Planet

By Ryan Wilson
From http://backporch.fanhouse.com/

An idea long overdue: a Mike Tyson reality show. On Animal Planet. SB Nation's Bad Left Hook blog has the details:

Debuting in 2011 and beginning filming soon, a new Animal Planet show starring Mike Tyson will "take audiences inside the intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating world of pigeon racing," according to a network press release.

"I'm honored to be a part of this monumental show on Animal Planet," said Tyson. "I feel a great pride acting as an official representative for all the pigeon fanciers out there. I want people to see why we love these birds. It feels good returning to the rooftops of the city where it all started for me -- New York."

I first heard about Tyson and his pigeons in 2003, when ESPN's Bill Simmons wrote about the boxer and his birds.

The pigeons. People come and go, wives come and go, fights come and go ... but the pigeons endure. He's been flying them ever since he was a little boy in Brooklyn. After Lewis savagely destroyed him last summer, the most humiliating of defeats, Tyson returned to Harlem and flew his birds for months on end. His wife filed for divorce. The boxing world left him for dead. He kept flying those damned pigeons. Earlier in the morning, I was talking with one of the locals who cares for Tyson's birds when he's away -- a guy named Ron -- who explained, "He likes the way they fly. I think he just likes coming up here. It's his place. He relaxes up here."

I'm intrigued. Not sure if Animal Planet has decided on a name for the show but I'm pushing for the Pigeon Whisperer. It's too obvious not to happen.