It might just be the best kept secret in professional sports. If you not familiar with PBR, it has everything you want in team or individual competition – action, intensity, peril, athleticism, risk, defeat, and victory.
Airing on CBS Sports Network as well as on multimedia platforms, PBR Professional Bull Riding is the perfect remedy for the end of the NFL season, a baseball season yet to begin, and hockey and basketball just entering their respective home stretches.
I checked out a Monster Energy Team Challenge production from Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis featuring the Missouri Thunder vs. Kansas City Outlaws. The show opened with a video montage of Indianapolis followed by some of the Outlaw bull riders walking in from the locker room with a healthy amount of swagger.
These guys are, indeed, bigger than life because they literally take their lives in their own hands every time they mount a ferocious bull that weighs anywhere from 1200 to 2000 pounds. Upstart Missouri vs. defending regular season champion Kansas City is just one of the rivalries that was born from PBR Professional Bull Riding team competition. The production values on all of the CBS Sports Network editions are high.
After the initial opening sequence, the program offered terrific video of the bull riders in action with dramatic voice over prose. The eloquent words talked about dedication, drive, heated rivalries, and the “man versus beast” running theme in this ever-growing sport. The Kentucky Derby might be the fastest two minutes in sports, but PBR Professional Bull Riding provides the most exciting eight seconds in or out of sports. It is almost like several 8 second games within an entire competition.
The 2025 Monster Energy Team Challenge has become a popular viewer choice speckled across CBS Sports Network’s program guide. The announcers for this particular production were Craig Hummer and Cord McCoy. This talented and effusive pair set the tone for the broadcast talking about both teams while graphics showing pertinent statistics. One of the focused discussions looked at Kansas City’s Sandro Batista, who had recently ended a bull named Cool Whip’s PBR record buck off streak at 48.
McCoy related that even opposing bull riders in that particular competition were rooting for Batista. PBR Professional Bull Riding is hardly just regional in popularity. The sport is filling large arenas as far north as Worcester, MA and Manchester, NH. I covered an event last December in Manchester at SNHU Arena. The place was banged out with no empty seats and a vibrant and diverse crowd.
CBS Sports Network has created extremely popular productions featuring individual and PBR Teams competitions. The team aspect brings a whole new level of fun as it fosters geographical loyalty as well as rivalries. The Outlaws versus Thunder matchup is a great example of this. On paper, the stats said that Kansas City should win the competition easily, but the Thunder were primed to pull off an upset to win bragging rights in the state of Missouri.
Joining Hummer and McCoy on the talent roster for this production was Kate Harrison, who served as a sideline and on field reporter for the event. Harrison did a really nice job interviewing several of the bull riders as well as team coaches. The CBS Sports Network team of McCoy, Hummer, and Harrison bring all of the unbridled enthusiasm inherent in the sport.
One aspect that draws viewers into PBR Professional Bull Riding is the dramatic slant of the sport and production. There is a palpable professional wrestling nuance and style to the competition and presentation. Most of the events start with some form of musical or dance entertainment. There are also the modern day jovial rodeo clowns and other performers bringing crowds to their feet with physical antics and fun.
In addition, fireworks and light shows spark up the arena and get the action going, creating an amazing atmosphere. PBR Professional Bull Riding is building its foundation on Americana and a fandom longing for throwback, hardscrabble athletes. This feeling is similar to the overall positive response to Team USA fighting Team Canada at the start of a 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament game on February 15.
Check out a live or on air PBR Professional Bull Riding event and you will see fans getting into the feel with Stetsons, cowboy boots, bolo ties, vests, team merchandise, and leather chaps. Yes, I said leather chaps. The sport is also clearly tied to the current crossover popularity of contemporary country music. Superstars like Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Shaboozey, Morgan Wallen, Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini and many others are not only stars in the country genre, but overall in American popular music.
PBR Professional Bull Riding on CBS Sports Network has its own roster of stars. In addition to Batista, this event featured popular riders like Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, Koltin Hevalow, Boudreaux Campbell, Grayson Cole, Maikon Calixto Rocha, and Trace Redd. There are also stars of the hooved bullish type with charismatic names like Bayou Bad Boy, Gravedigger, Bad Intentions, Judgment Day, and Cactus Jack. While each individual bull rider scores individual points, the final score of the competition is the cumulative scores of all the riders on each team. Missouri pulled the upset winning 348.75 to 169.
PBR Professional Bull Riding is not regional, it is national. It is not niche, it is expanding. It is not local, it is global. In fact, the organization held a PBR Teams Combine in Icem, Sao Paulo, Brazil this week. The combine was attended by all 10 teams competing in the league. PBR had previously held combines in Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas, but this was the league’s first scouting event outside the United States.
The PBR website (pbr.com) features video clips, stats, and data, as well as promotions for upcoming live events. It also has schedules, results, athlete profiles, team information, and where to watch PBR Professional Bull Riding broadcasts. The organization and sport also has footprints on YouTube as well as PBR RidePass on Pluto TV and the PBR app.
I am all in on PBR Professional Bull Riding on CBS Sports Network, and I am not alone. PBR Teams launched in 2022 and expanded from 8 to 10 teams in 2024. Attendance for the 2024
Teams season increased by 15% over 2023. Moreover, television audiences have also increased. The 2024 season averaged 1.4 million unique U.S. viewers per 2024 telecast, up from 1.1 million in 2022, an increase of 22% in total viewers.
Beyond the numbers, PBR Professional Bull Riding is filled with fast-paced movement, drama, colorful characters, driven athletes, and of course, the specter of the intimidating bulls. As the Outlaws vs. Thunder video montage voice over stated, “The competition is ruthless, the action is unrelenting.”
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John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
