Strikeforce made it’s NCIS: Los Angeles debut on CBS Tuesday night, crossing-over into one of the networks most popular shows on Primetime. This cross-over was the latest promotional effort by CBS for their upcoming Strikeforce Nashville event taking place on April 17th. The footage for the promo below was the promo released during the airing of the show.
The Strikeforce CBS promo for the NCIS: Los Angeles show has been very popular with viewers, getting almost 12K views and counting on YouTube since it’s release a few weeks back:
Tuesday night’s NCIS: Los Angeles episode, which featured the Strikeforce brand and its fighters is now available online in its entirety on the CBS website, in case you missed it.
Payout Perspective:
Strikeforce debuted with some of their most marketable fighters on NCIS: Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The ratings for the show are out, and Strikeforce was able to get their brand and fighters in front of 13.65 million viewers that night in two different ways. One was the placement of it’s brand and fighters on the show, which was extremely subtle (Fedor vs Rogers poster in the gym was interesting to spot as well as their fighters used as sparring partners). The other was showing a couple of commercial sports for the Strikeforce 4/17 Nashville event, which was more effective. A couple of things to point out from the Promo:
- They showed all main event fighters on the promo, first time King Mo was introduced to CB audience.
- They mentioned “Strikeforce” during the end of the promo, as part of the event name. This is subtle yet a big step, since CBS has typically only mention the event as “CBS Saturday Night Fights”.
- Spell checks still need to be made, as Gegard Mousasi’s name needs to be corrected going forward in future promo spots.
- The show itself, NCIS: LA didn’t exactly paint MMA in the greatest light or go into too much depth of what MMA really is, but was used it as background for the storyline involving marines. A better integration of MMA and the Strikeforce brand on a future CBS show/episode which embodies respect, honor, technicality, and camaraderie would be nice to see.
mmaguru says
Not a fan of NCIS, but watched it to see the MMA aspect. It was a fun episode.
Jose Mendoza says
mmaguru: Agreed, thought it was a fun show.
jv says
Strikeforce probably did more to promote NCIS-LA than the other way around. The commercials would have helped to even it out.