The Ultimate Fighter Finale on FS1 Saturday drew 1.032 million viewers per Sports TV Ratings. The Prelims drew 887,000 viewers.
The main card aired from 10:00-1:32am on FS1 and featured Demetrious Johnson successfully defending his title against TUF 24 winner Tim Elliott. The main card drew 531,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 category per Sports TV Ratings. The prelims drew 430,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 category.
The event did slightly less than this past summer’s TUF 23 Finale which featured Joanna Jedrzejczyk versus Claudia Gadelha. The show, which aired on a Friday night drew 1.086 million total and 657,000 in the A18-49 demo. The prelims for TUF 23 drew 642,000 total and 352,000 in the A18-49 demo.
The TUF 22 Finale last December drew just 883,000 viewers with the prelims earning 294,000 viewers. The main card last year featured Frankie Edgar versus Chad Mendes.
Here’s a look at a history of TUF cards in recent history:
TUF 18 (December 2013): 1.13M viewers, Prelims 938,000
TUF 19 (July 2014): 1 million viewers, Prelims 774,000
TUF 20 (December 2014): 989,000, Prelims 719,000
TUF 21 (July 2015): 691,000, Prelims 470,000
TUF 22 (December 2015): 883,000, Prelims 809,000
TUF 21 (July 2015): 691,000, Prelims 470,000
Payout Perspective:
Saturday night’s main card did a respectable rating, especially the prelims which drew the highest rating since December 2013. I am not sure whether the ratings are an indication that Demetrious Johnson is good for TV, but not on PPV but he’s done well when on FOX cards but not on PPV. Overall, good ratings for the event.
Decent went up against Bellator 167 which drew 545,000 and over 600,000 on Friday for 166, the Bellator cards were kind of weak and could have used being merged together for a 3 hour show on Friday.
Solid numbers.