MMA Payout has learned through a confirming email from Spike TV that The Ultimate Fighter 12 Episode 8 scored a 1.2 household rating and averaged 1.6 million viewers. The ratings matched a season low.
Broken down it earned a 1.7 rating for M18-49, and a 1.84 rating for M18-34.
Quarterlies: 1.16/1.14/1.18/1.26
Payout Perspective:
The ratings tie for the lowest of this season (with episodes 1 and 4). This is surprising considering last week’s ratings tied for the highest of the season. Also, there are no major UFC events occurring in the near future. I would think that fans would be interested in seeing some UFC action. Are the ratings a minor blip or a sign of oversaturation of the UFC product?
To be honest, I’m surprised that a million people actually watch the show. I’m not in position to comment as I have not watched since season 4, but it’s really god awful reality T.V. – on par with some of the worst reality programs which were canceled after a few seasons.
Ditto guru.
I would be interested in what the dvr adjusted ratings are. TUF is a perfect show to dvr because u can fast forward thru any drama u are not interested in and basically watch the entire episode u want in less than 30 minutes.
I watched a couple of episodes of TUF 10 because the fan base kept acting like it was “Firefly” for reality TV. Never again. But I suspect if you took a UFC poster and pointed a camera at it for an hour you could get a million people to watch it.
Wait, what?? Why the negativity? “A sign of oversaturation”?? Due to a one week blip? These are the exact same numbers as episode 1 and episode 4. These ratings are up 30-40% over Season 11. Most TV show ratings erode over time.
What is the point of adding that ignorant, pessimistic comment at the end? Jeez.
Episode 6 was a great episode, and the ratings spiked a bit for episode 7. Episode 7 sucked, so the ratings drooped a bit for Episode 8. It happens. How about the fact that the lead-in last week (UFC Unleashed) had significantly better ratings than this week?
Did you do any research AT ALL to support your “oversaturation” comment? Ugh.
The average cast these days just isn’t worth spending my time on. I’ll catch the qualifying event and the fight night. However the tryouts for the next season look pretty stacked. That will be a good test of whether the TUF format is fading or has just had a slow patch as far as talent.
If it does fade, I’d like to see them replace it with something like Strikeforce’s Challengers cards.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. The fights this season are good. And they’re free. I’ve been watching.
I think we make too much of week-to-week changes. It looks to me like the ratings are moving within a band. The question is whether that band is moving season to season.