Inside The Numbers on UFC 89
November 10, 2008
Ivan Trembow has an article on MMAWeekly with the most-watched fights of the UFC 89 premiere on Spike TV (headlined by Bisping vs. Leben), again based on minute-by-minute ratings. The article also includes information on which fights gained the most viewers, and how each fight stacked up to some of those same fighters’ previous fights in terms of average viewership.
Ivan’s analysis is always instructive in that it gives us some insight into who actually moves viewers and who doesn’t. He notes that the main event saw the smallest bump in audience, denoting that most of the audience had shown up already. I think this owes more to a main event that lacked the star power to bring in a out-sized number for the main event. The hardcore fans were already tuned in the casuals only mildly gravitated to the Main Event. The Leben vs Bisping failed to crack the vaunted Top 20 for all time MMA television audiences. The whole article is worth a look for the number cruncher in all of us.
