Sylvester Stallone created the Rocky Balboa character

The winner of the NBC series will receive $1m (�560,000) and the chance to become a professional prize fighter.

Boxers will fight one another in a weekly elimination process on The Contender show, due to air next year.

"What I really want is for people, especially women, who don't like boxing, to watch this show because it's a drama," said Stallone, 57.

"All these 16 fighters must have a very good story and an interesting background," Stallone said on Saturday at a fitness fair in Germany.

"You'll get to know their wives and children, their mothers. It's very emotional," he added.

Stallone said he was unlikely to be tempted by a major movie role that would take him away from his family for months.

The Rocky series made Stallone an international star

"I had my high point 30 years ago," he said.

"I had a very unusual career. It was too good - how do you top that?"

Stallone wrote and starred in all five Rocky films.

His performance and script for the first film earned him two Academy Award nominations.

The film also won Oscars for best director and best film in 1977, beating Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

It was made for about $1m and took in $220m in worldwide ticket sales.

All of the Rocky movies took more than $100m in box office takings - apart from the fifth film, released in 1990, which took just $40m.