Last week’s “Breakfast with Fedor” on Spike TV drew an average of 141,000 viewers from 10:00am ET-12:48pm ET on Thursday, December 31st. The event featured MMA fights from the Rizin promotion held in Japan.
UPDATED: Per Nielsen source, peak viewership at 271,000.
The event featured Fedor Emelianenko’s return to MMA where he soundly defeated Singh Jaideep in the first round. The event was promoted by Spike TV as “Breakfast with Fedor” which highlighted its early start time on New Year’s Eve. Also on the card was King Mo Lawal, Kron Gracie and Bob Sapp.
The event was preceded by an end of year show from Bellator MMA.
Notably, a replay of UFC 189 on FS1 from 8-11pm New Year’s eve drew 316,000 viewers.
(h/t: Sports TV Ratings)
Payout Perspective:
The event was a unique experiment attempting to take advantage of the return of Fedor as well as the annual experience of a Japanese New Year’s card. Overall, the fights were entertaining except for Shinya Aoki’s destruction of Kazushi Sakuraba. The ratings were low but with this show on replay and the hardcore MMA fans already seeking it out online plus the holiday, it was going to be a hit or miss. It appears as though it missed.
Where is a anti UFC comment from MR. TOPS?
Crappy ratings for a crappy fight.