TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 4:  1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 5:  947,000 viewers
TUF Live Episode 6:  1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 7:  1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 8: 929,000 viewers
TUF Live Episode 9:  954,000 viewers
TUF Live Episode 10: 948,000 viewers

Payout Perspective:

This is disappointing considering there were two fights on the card and we got to know the fighter that would replace Dominick Cruz.  We’ll see what the numbers are for the Countdown show which followed TUF Live.  If it did better, we might deduce that TUF Live just isn’t doing it for UFC fans this time around.

TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 4:  1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 5:  947,000 viewers
TUF Live Episode 6:  1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 7:  1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 8: 929,000 viewers

Payout Perspective:

Did Zuffa execs think that the TUF franchise would fall this far in the ratings when moving it to FX and on Fridays? TUF Live went unopposed (no Bellator) last week and fell to the lowest point in the franchise. Its a sign that viewers are not really interested in this season.

TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 4:  1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 5:  947,000 viewers
TUF Live Episode 6:  1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 7:  1 million viewers

Payout Perspective:

While the ratings did not slide, it’s interesting that the third episode of UFC Primetime saw a 13% bump in ratings yet TUF Live ratings remained the same.  One would think that TUF Live would receive a bit of an increase as a lead-in to the show.  Also, on the heels of a big UFC weekend, one would think people would want to watch some MMA.

TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 4:  947,000 viewers

Payout Perspective:

Slightly better than the all-time low for the series.  As we’ve discussed throughout reporting these figures, there are many factors to attribute the lower ratings. But, we may need to just recalibrate our expectations of the series.

It was not a good night for the rest of the UFC programming either as the first episode of UFC Primetime: Jones vs. Evans began after TUF Live. It only garnered 462,000 viewers.  As a comparison, Spike TV’s reruns of UFC content received an average of 408,000 viewers.

TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 4:  947,000 viewers

(h/t:  MMA Junkie)

Payout Perspective:

Dismal ratings all around for the UFC.  Do we attribute the poor ratings on the network change, the change to Friday nights, the content changes or all of the above.  Certainly, some viewers may DVR TUF Live and UFC Primetime although the show overruns make recording the west coast reruns impossible unless you record the whole night on FX.  As we reported last week, the UFC is still where it wants to be on FX based on the demos and overall performance of the network.  But, just like a young team that shows promise, there will be lots of growing pains.

NETWORK: FOX (112M households) Q1 Ratings:

UFC on FOX:

• UFC on FOX 1: Velasquez vs Dos Santos: 5.7M, 3.1 household rating  (1 Hour Block, 1 Fight)
• UFC on FOX 2: Evans vs Davis: 4.7M, 2.6 household rating (2.5 Hour Block, 3 Fights)

Q1 Average: 5.2M … Trend: Down

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NETWORK: FX (99M households) Q1 RATINGS:

TUF LIVE:

• TUF Live Episode 1 – 1.3M
• TUF Live Episode 2 – 1.1M
• TUF Live Episode 3 – 1.2M
• TUF Live Episode 4 – 1.054M

Q1 Average: 1.16M Viewers, Trend: Down

TUF Season Average Rating (last 5 seasons) on Spike TV:

• TUF 14 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.5M viewers
• TUF 13 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.3M viewers
• TUF 12 Season on Spike TV (2010) Averaged 1.74M viewers
• TUF 11 Season on Spike TV (2010) Averaged 1.65M viewers
• TUF 10 Season on Spike TV (2009) Averaged 3M viewers

TUF Season Average (last 5 seasons) on Spike TV: 1.84M Viewers

Spike TV Comparable Trend: Down

UFC on FX:

• UFC on FX 1: 1.3M
• UFC on FX 2: 1.4M

Q1 Average: 1.35M Viewers, Trend: Up, Flat

UFN Average Rating (last 5 events) on Spike TV:

• UFN 25 on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.8M viewers
• UFN 24 on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 2.2M viewers
• UFN 23 on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.85M viewers
• UFN 22 on Spike TV (2010) Averaged 1.2M viewers
• UFN 21 on Spike TV (2010) Averaged 1.6M viewers

UFN Average (last 5 events) on Spike TV: 1.73M Viewers

Spike TV Comparable Trend: Down

UFC Primetime:

• “UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” (Episode 1): 657,000 viewers
• “UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” (Episode 2): 520,000 viewers
• “UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” (Episode 3): 442,000 viewers

Q1 Average: 540,000 Viewers, Trend: Down

UFC Primetime Debut Episode Ratings (last 5 events) on Spike TV:

• UFC Primetime: GSP vs Shields on Spike TV (2011): 610K viewers
• UFC Primetime: Lesnar vs Velasquez on Spike TV (2010): 974K viewers
• UFC Primetime: Rampage vs Evans on Spike TV (2011): 1.2M viewers
• UFC Primetime: GSP vs Hardy on Spike TV (2010): 1M viewers
• UFC Primetime: GSP vs Penn II on Spike TV (2009): 880K viewers

UFC Primetime Debut Episodes (last 5) Average on Spike TV: 933K Viewers

Spike TV Comparable Trend: Down, Flat

UFC on FX Prelims:

• UFC 142 Prelims: 880K
• UFC 143 Prelims: 1.4M
• UFC 144 Prelims: 1.5M

 Q1 Average: 1.26M, Trend: Up

UFC Prelims Average Rating (last 5 events) on Spike TV:

• UFC 141 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.8M viewers
• UFC 139 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.2M viewers
• UFC 137 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.1M viewers
• UFC 136 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1M viewers
• UFC 135 Season on Spike TV (2011) Averaged 1.6M viewers

Previous 5 UFC Prelims Average on Spike TV: 1.34M Viewers

Spike TV Comparable Trend: Flat

FX & SpikeTV: 2012 (Q1) Primetime Vs. 2011 (Q1) Primetime :

FX
- Men 18-49=  -20%
- Men 18-34=  -21%

Trend: Down

Spike
- Men 18-49 = +4%
- Men 18-34= +7%

Trend: Up

****************************************************************************************

NETWORK: FUEL TV (36M Households) Q1 RATINGS:

UFC on FUEL:

- UFC on Fuel TV 1: 217,000

UFC on Fuel Prelims:

• UFC on FX1 Fuel Prelims: 148,000
• UFC on FOX 2 Prelims: 144,000
• UFC on FX 2 Fuel Prelims: 113,000

Q1 Average: 135,000, Trend: Down

UFC Tonight:

• UFC Tonight Episode 1: 39,000
• UFC Tonight Episode 2: 20,000
• UFC Tonight Episode 3: 61,000
• …

Q1 Average: 63,000, Trend: Up

Overall Q1 Ratings Analysis (Fuel TV PR):

- Fuel TV is television’s fastest-growing cable network this year, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research. In both the Total Day and Prime Time, the network recorded the largest percentage increases of total viewers among all rated, ad-supported cable networks in the first quarter of 2012.

- Fuel TV continued its unprecedented ratings increases in March, following the growth trend that began in January when Ultimate Fighting Championship® programming began to dominate key day-parts. February was the network’s most-watched month ever, featuring its first live UFC fight, which delivered the channel its most-watched program, most-watched Prime Time and most-watched week.

- Fuel TV aired 233 hours of UFC programming in February and added another 213 hours in March. FUEL TV telecast 646 hours of UFC programming in the first three months of 2012.

- Q1 2012 was FUEL TV’s most-watched in network history, finishing up +100% in Total Viewers and up +125% in M18-49 vs. Q1 2011

- Q1 Prime Time viewership increased +200% in Total Viewers and +260% among M18-49 vs. the same quarter last year

- Q1 Late Night increased +222% on Total Viewers and +275% among M18-49 compared to Q1 in 2011.

Payout Perspective:

Making a conclusion as to whether the UFC and FOX TV deal is a success or failure based on only the Q1 ratings would obviously be premature, but it also doesn’t mean we can’t start to look at the performance of UFC content on the FOX platforms.

The obvious observations here after Q1 has to be how much UFC has helped out Fuel TV, not only in terms of ratings, but also increasing their reach from 30M to 36M since the TV announcement was made back in 2011.  However, Fuel TV at the end of the day only reaches 1/3 of the households that Spike TV reached while still being one of the lowest rated networks in cable TV, so unless Fuel’s reach picks up – doesn’t look like that will be the case until the end of the year at the earliest – the UFC will consistently be placing the majority of their content on a channel that only reaches a fraction of what Spike TV gets.

FOX is doing a great job at exposing the UFC product to the masses, but the last event was actually a big drop-off from the first event as every fight went to a decision and almost tripled the length of UFC on FOX 1. Not to mention that four shows a year is just not enough frequency for the casuals.  Getting mainstream sponsors for the FOX events has also not been as easy as was expected when the deal was made last year.  The ratings drop of the second show caused for the UFC to create “fun and exciting” match-ups for UFC on FOX 3 rather than book big names in hope that casuals will tune in and stick around for “fan-friendly” and exciting booked fights.

FX and the newly revamped “TUF Live” were a big part of the TV deal with TUF being the key platform the UFC uses to create future stars and PPV draws.  So far, the show has been a disappointment (in terms of ratings) with all-time rating lows for the series.  Dana White and the UFC brass predicted that they could very well reach 3 million viewers for TUF on FX  if they were getting around 1.5 million on Spike TV without any promotion.  Well, that prediction hasn’t panned out yet, even with heavy promotion leading up the the debut on FX.  More shocking is that after UFC moved to FX, FX network’s M18-34 and M18-49 demos have decreased compared to Q1 2011 while Spike’s have gone up.  FX dedicating Friday nights as “UFC Nights”, a day which is notorious for bad ratings and when the M18-34 demographic is not at home in front of their TV sets, has also not panned out for the UFC yet.  Moving the content to mid-week could be a solution, but FX is happy enough with the Friday night ratings since it’s an improvement from what they get with non-UFC content, so it looks like the UFC will have to ride this out for the time being.

There is something to be said about the simplicity of being a UFC fan and being able to find all the content you needed on one network.  Now, with multiple platforms designated with different UFC content, fans are having a difficult time migrating from Spike TV (who will continue to air UFC content through 2012) to multiple FOX platforms. FOX only shows UFC events 4 times a year, FX only on Fridays and sometimes on Saturday, while Fuel TV has designated days where they show no UFC content at all despite airing over 200+ hours of UFC programming a month . The complexity for the typical MMA TV viewer has definitely increased since the deal, but regardless of the vast TV programming now available, MMA fans can always count on tuning in on Saturday nights – usually once a month – to catch a big PPV event.  That is a consistent and simple message the UFC has promoted for years and one that still works. It gets hundreds-of-thousands of UFC fans pumped up for a UFC weekend. Sometimes, simplicity can be bliss.

TUF Live Episode 1: 1.28 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 2: 1.1 million viewers
TUF Live Episode 3: 1.2 million viewers

Payout Perspective:

It may take some time for the UFC audience to gravitate to FX but, this NY Times article shows the reasons why the UFC’s key demo should help FX and vice versa. The article keys in on FX as a revenue generator for Fox as it focuses on the young adult male demo.  Mainly, it cites its original programming geared toward young males.   According to the article, FX was the 10th most watched basic cable channel and 8th most-watched in the 18-49 category in the first quarter of 2012.  This should help the UFC in the long run.

Minus Spike’s use of the UFC library next year and insert Bellator into that slot, the UFC should build on its share of the MMA fans on Friday nights.  Keeping the TUF Live product fresh is another issue which the UFC-FX is trying to do.

The ratings reflect an 8 percent increase from last week but the 1.2 million viewers is the new average for the series’ debut on FX.

White was quoted as stating he didn’t think that TUF Live would do “3.5 million out of the gate.”  Well, its done 3.6 million…in the first three episodes.  Probably not the performance he was hoping for although there is still time to do better.

Payout Perspective:

We should probably temper the concern right now considering the last two weeks have been subject to competition from March Madness.  As we wrote this morning, Dana White is optimistic that the ratings will come.  It would be interesting to see what viewers think about TUF Live on FX. Have the changes helped? Or, is it too soon to determine.  At this point, none of the competitors have distinguished themselves as someone you’d tune in to watch.  In my opinion, it’s hard to get into the Faber-Cruz rivalry.  I realize that every rivalry is not going to be Rashad-Rampage and I realize that there’s real disdain between Faber and Cruz.  Yet, it feels like something is missing.

The debut of TUF Live on FX scored an average of 1.28 million viewers yet saw a decline in the ratings over the course of the show. The second episode last week were down with a 1.1 million viewer average. We may discount last week’s ratings decrease since it went up against the NCAA Tournament.

Via MMA Junkie:

“There’s so many things that are involved in those numbers,” White said. “I didn’t expect to jump on FX and do 3.5 million viewers right out of the gate. But here’s the thing: The format is awesome. It’s perfect. We’ve got a great season, and we’re going to build this thing.

“Believe me, the way that FX deals with their programming and how they handle it, they’re so analytical. These guys are like [expletive] rocket scientists how they break this stuff down and look at it. Trust me, everything is positive over there.”

One thing that has peaked White’s interest is that Vegas sportsbooks are taking action on the TUF Live fights.  White also addressed the fact that the ratings are due in part to the NCAA tourney.

“March Madness” will wrap soon, casual viewers will eventually figure out the show is now on FX, and hardcore fans may very well become again interested in the show thanks to the new format.

Payout Perspective:

We may discount last week and this week due to the tournament but we shall see if viewers will gravitate to FX.  We will see if the ratings will increase over the season as White predicts (or hopes).  The UFC has tinkered with the show to keep the show different and the jury is still out on whether the live fights will attract more viewers.  Of course, there was White’s initial expectations about the viewership doubling on FX.  Perhaps we were not to take this literally or expect the ratings to double in the first season on FX but there are definite expectations on how TUF Live will perform.

The UFC ratings press release labeled the ratings as a “strong start” to the series, and according to John Solberg of FX, “Transformers” and the UFC led the channel to a #1 ranking on Friday (prime time) for the A18-49 and A18-34 demographics. We will now take a closer look at the numbers in our Ratings Breakdown analysis.

TUF Live FX Debut Ratings Breakdown:

Viewership for First Hour (15 Minute Intervals):

1,505,000
1,454,000
1,446,000
1,364,000

Viewership for Second Hour (15 Minute Intervals):
1,389,000
1,160,000
1,236,000
1,181,000

Viewership for Third Hour (15 Minute Intervals):
1,173,000
1,052,000

Total Average Viewers: 1.28 Million

TUF Live FX Debut Comparisons (Same  Friday  Time Slot):

TUF LIVE Premiere (FX) – 1.28 Million Average Viewers

TUF Friday’s (Reruns on Spike TV) – 653,000 Average Viewers

Bellator 60 Live (MTV 2) – 169,000 Average Viewers

Historical Comparisons and Notes:

TUF Premiere Episode Averages Seasons 1-14:  2.0 million viewers

TUF 14 Premiere on Spike – 1.5 million viewers (lowest of the 14 seasons)

TUF 13 Premiere on Spike – 1.5 million viewers (lowest of the 14 seasons)

TUF 12 Premiere on Spike – 1.6 million viewers

TUF 11 Premiere on Spike – 1.9 million viewers

TUF 10 Premiere on Spike – 4.1 million viewers (highest of the 14 seasons)

TUF 1 Premiere on Spike – 1.7 million viewers

Expectations from the UFC:

From a Dana White interview MMAWeekly.com performed regarding the matter:

“Now that we’ve got this new platform, going on big Fox and FX, the amount of viewers that are going to watch, I mean this season of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ with no promotion whatsoever is pulling between 1.5 and 1.8 million viewers (on Spike),” White said.
…
“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’.”

Expected Viewership: More Than 3 Million Viewers (Actual: 1.3 Million)

UFC’s Reaction:

Dana White’s answer after ratings were reported and asked if 1.3M was, as he tweeted, “:) sweet!”:

“yup!!! On a Friday night when our demo is out.”

White’s answer when asked by a fan if they could move their time slot away from Friday to improve ratings and not miss their demo:

“that’s when FX wants us on”

Payout Perspective:

There are a few things to point out here.  The most obvious and important one is the ratings pattern, which constantly declined throughout the show.  That is not a good sign for the UFC who was hoping to make a big splash for their debut episode on FX.  The second observation to point out here  is that TUF Live lost one third (33%) of their audience from start to finish, which also isn’t great.  The event was heavily promoted all over FOX properties and all over the internet, which makes the 1.3 million that much more disappointing.  It was also the lowest TUF season debut in the history of the series, although it did win the A18-49 and A18-34 demos as well as their head to heads with Bellator on MTV 2 and Spike’s TUF repeats.

The main complain that was loudly heard from the fans was that the show format just didn’t seem to work live.  There were many awkward moments with no commentary while the fights were going on and you heard talking and conversation from Dana White and the TUF coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber discussing their observations, but it just didn’t seem to work out. John Anik’s usage seemed particularly odd, as he could have been doing the play-by-play but instead was relegated to doing interviews and announcements.  Most casuals we received feedback from labeled the event as “2.5 hours of random guys fighting one rounders that someone was filming from some underground location”.

The positive here is that this will not be TUF’s normal format, and their 30 minutes of drama and 30 minutes of fighting should improve the quality of the show, but you have to wonder how many first time viewers will return after that many turned their TV sets to another channel.   It will be difficult to gain traction with the Friday night time slot, but FX has made it very clear that it only wants to show UFC content on Friday nights and Saturdays on their network.Again, the typical format should be much more favorable to the casual and TUF fans, so we will have to wait and see how the next few episodes do to see if fans come back and settle in.