The ratings are in for the first live season of The Ultimate Fighter and they aren’t good. 1.3 million viewers tuned in (& out) for The Ultimate Fighter: Live falling way short of past season debut averages on Spike TV.
I am not a big fan of ratings but I think there is a story here. The 1.3 million may sound impressive to anyone unfamiliar with past TUF seasons. However, a further look back at past seasons shows an average of 2 million viewers who tuned in to Spike for season premieres. As bad as that sounds, and it is bad, the bigger story here is the pattern throughout the show.
[adinserter block=”2″]MMA writer Dave Meltzer reports that ratings significantly declined throughout the show. According to Meltzer, viewers started changing the channel in droves after the third fight. You don’t have to be a big MMA fan to understand how devastating that could be to the future of the program.
It is an even bigger fail when you take a look back at the statements Dana White made in November about the future of the program.
“We’ll more than double that when we go onto FX. I mean we’ll probably have more than 3 million viewers on FX watching the ‘Ultimate Fighter.”
Ouch!
I have to admit that I was one of those viewers. I consider myself a big MMA fan but I lost interest in TUF 15 fast. I have never liked the preliminary fights to get into the house and it appears I am not in the minority. I look at it like this. If I wanted to watch two hours of amateur MMA fighting, I’d find a local show to attend on a Saturday night. Watching amateur MMA fights with poor technique, no commentary, taking place inside a gym is nothing that interests me or the casual MMA fan.
There is just something about the never ending loop of amateur fighting that turned me off to these preliminary fights. Maybe if the fights had some commentary to at least give me some background on the fighters, I may find a fight or two that I could invest some emotional interest in. Otherwise I am just watching two guys in an empty gym with no context.
With that said, even The Ultimate Fighter season premieres in the past with preliminary fights did better than this show. So why the huge drop off as compared to previous seasons? I think Friday night has a huge part in it. The core audience for this kind of show is probably out or busy on Friday nights. Moving away from Wednesday or Thursdays could be a bigger misstep than anyone realized.
The coaches did a horrendous job on Friday night of keeping the audience. We have been told for weeks about all of this animosity between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber. Yet all I saw when I tuned watched the show on Friday night was two guys joking around and having a good time during the fights. Whether they really hate each or not, they completely lost sight of the fact that they were there to make good television. It was boring and did nothing to sell the show, the fighters, and their upcoming fight.
I know that MMA fans hate when pro wrestling creeps into their sport but you need a little bit of pro wrestling between coaches to make this concept work. There is a reason that Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock were two of the biggest fights in UFC history. Those guys and others (Matt Serra, Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, Michael Bisping) all knew how to play the game. If you aren’t going to play the game, stay home.
The whole “live” aspect of TUF means nothing to me as a longtime TUF viewer. I know it was supposed to be this ground breaking change but in reality, it makes no difference whatsoever to the show. The one thing that the UFC does probably better than any other reality show is keep their spoilers under wraps. I can’t remember any previous season having leaks. With no leaks, it makes no difference whether the show is live or taped to me or anyone else.
I also think that there is a big lesson learned here, specifically for some bloggers and reporters that predicted the doom and gloom of WWE Friday Night SmackDown when it was announced that the UFC would move TUF to Friday nights. One has nothing to do with the other. The audiences don’t mix and SmackDown’s ratings actually went up this past week on the debut week. Even TNA Wrestling’s live ratings were better than UFC Fight Night broadcasts when both were on Spike. Can we please refrain from connecting these two audiences in the future?
[adinserter block=”1″]I think the biggest problem with The Ultimate Fighter Live has nothing to do with the show. I think there is just way too much MMA on television. Even for a big fan like me, there is only so much time during the week I can devote to it. It’s oversaturated so the desire to see live Friday night amateur MMA fights just isn’t there. It’s not TUF’s fault, it is just the landscape of MMA in 2012
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Dana White on twitter said 1.3 million viewers is great because their demo is out partying! lol Well, explain why TUF on Wednesday last year also drew the same pathetic numbers. Oh, I see, it aired opposite American Idol. Yeah, Spike deliberately put TUF against AI so the viewership would be low! Thus, driving down the price Zuffa would charge Spike for a new contract.
A taped episode of Smackdown doubled up in total viewers over a live UFC show? That's embarrassing.
Actually according to a study done by the cable companies there's a 50% overlap between the UFC and WWE … while the UFC and boxing only have 5-12% over lap.
Where in the world did you see that? With all due respect I dont believe it.
I agree with this almost 100 percent Eric. That 2.5 hour snooze fest was that much more disappointing because I tuned in for my love of Urijah Faber. No background trackings, terrible, terrible announcing and not one fighter jumped out at you as a guy you could really like or really root against (my favorite part of the show).
The only thing that kept me watching was the amount of finishes and unpredictability of each fight. I actually love the prelims because there is no analysis and since you don't know the guys, you never find yourself saying, "oh, that guy's a lock." I'll keep watching, but FX really dropped the ball.