MMA Junkie recently spoke with Spike TV’s senior vice president Brian Diamond about The Ultimate Fighter. Notably, Diamond defended the show’s portrayal of some of its fighters and its selection process.
The SVP stated that TUF doesn’t seek out “miscreants” for the sake of ratings. Chris Leben and Junie Browing came to mind.
“The reality is, with Junie, he came to us,” Diamond said. “It wasn’t like we said, ‘Let’s go find us a Junie Browning.’ That guy was in casting two other times before he actually got cast on the show.
“The tough part with him is like anything else. You see a guy who’s got raw talent and abilities; it’s just his demons got in the way. You really wanted to give him an opportunity to see if he could weed those demons out. Unfortunately, it didn’t necessarily happen, but it’s like an MMA fight: you don’t know how it’s going to end until it ends because anything can happen in the last five seconds of the third round.”
Diamond indicated that the fighters trying out realize they need more than MMA skills to get in the house.
“[Fighters] know; they see the show,” Diamond said. “They know that they have to be interesting. They don’t have to be crazy, necessarily, but they just have to be interesting personalities.”
He also addressed criticisms, some of which have been stated in the comments section on this site, that TUF has run its course.
“We challenge ourselves,” Diamond said. “The fights to get into the house, adding the wild card, trying to find a unique combination of coaches – whether it’s Tito (Ortiz) and Chuck (Liddell), Rashad (Evans) and ‘Rampage’ (Jackson) – or when Kimbo Slice came into the mix, those are things that we try to challenge ourselves on. But the reality is, people are still watching it.”
“That would be like saying, I’m not going to watch the Daytona 500 because it’s the same race ever year. Well, there are different drivers. We don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the reality, and in those things, they don’t even tweak anything. They don’t go like, ‘Oh, the top three seeds have to be 50 yards back in the pack.’ It’s the same race.
Payout Perspective:
I find it interesting that when the weekly ratings of The Ultimate Fighter are released the comments section has a variety of opinion to the direction of the show. Some do not watch anymore, others do.
From a business perspective, I don’t believe TUF is going anywhere. Despite weekly fluctuations in ratings, people are watching. Secondly, similar to the minor leagues of baseball, it’s a great way for the UFC to find talent. It’s now a requirement that anyone trying out for TUF have at least three pro fights-thus, the UFC’s instituted a quality control for the show. Whether or not TUF fighters make it to the final, many still make the UFC roster. Third, TUF can do much more with an increased roster from the WEC. It wouldn’t surprise me that we see a TUF featuring 135 and 145lb fighters in the next year.
Diamond points out the positive changes it’s made over the course of TUF: fighting to get into the house, the wildcard and the coaches. Not to mention US v. UK. It also does a good job of keeping the coaches challenges fun and interesting (it’s always interesting to see how the coaches react to competing in a different sport).
From a viewer’s perspective, we grade based on what we see and don’t always check the ratings to gage whether or not we should approve of a season or another. Like every show, during the length of a successful run you recognize flaws. But most still watch. For a reality show, you cannot script endings or confrontations (well, at least you shouldn’t, but that’s another issue). That is TUF’s dilemma. The fights at the end of the show are what most viewers wait to watch. Coach interaction can be entertaining, but the fighters must carry the rest of the 30-35 minutes of the show. We see how they live, how they train and interact with each other. How does TUF keep that fresh, or does it even matter?
IMHO…its so ridiculous how people want to talk smack about The Ultimate Fighter show! I bet people would do anything to be able to watch people grow into superstars, in like the NBA, NFL and sports like those, man why complain and its also free! I just dont get people’s bitching about it. It may not always be the most amazing bunch but you still get to watch future stars and get to know them somewhat, what is there not to like about that! And not to mention its the UFC doing the show! People need to stop whinning about everything and apperciate it for what it is, and that is a free show on MMA. DOH!
I like the idea of a TUF featuring 135 and 145lb fighters. Quality of fighters for those shows would be on par with the first few seasons. I may be tempted to watch that season.
rick, I’m one of those who doesn’t watch the show. As another poster stated, if you put an image of the UFC logo on Spike you’d probably get close to 1 million viewers. Exaggerated, but likely true to some extent, doesn’t mean it’s quality programming.
Jason, thanks for the article. It’s good to get an insight on how Spike views the program. For Spike, even with the lower ratings it’s probably considered a moderate success as compared with ratings of other shows on the channel.
First let me say I have watched every episode of every season.
I think the show does it’s job. Every year it gives a group of fighters a chance to create a name for themselves. That helps more than just the UFC. Sure the UFC keeps what they think are the best from the show but those that don’t make it directly in the UFC end up going to smaller promotions and being a draw because they have some name recognition.
Also with a changing cast every season there is going to be some ups and downs. It’s impossible to predict how captivating a group will be without seeing them all together.
My one and only major complaint with the show is what they take away from the fighters and what they let them have in the house. I think it sucks they are allowed no TV or phones in the house but yet they give them all the alcohol they want. I wish they would keep the alcohol out of the house and give them a TV to at least watch old UFC fights or something. The alcohol gets in the way of what they are there for and I hate the drama that comes every season when one or more of the fighters decides to drink to much.
You tell me MMAGURU (ANTIUFC), tell me where else these guys would get a chance to get into the biggest show in the MMA world.(UFC) And than at the same time you get to know these guys a little bit. Man some peeps are just whinning little Biatches. Look thes guys are on spike trying to make a name for themselves, trying to feed thier families, basically making a living, what is wrong with that. What is Strikforce and bellators doing for the young guys, the average MMA person. Come on stop getting your panties in a wad and thank The show for what it is, the begining of MMA fighters career in the Big show (UFC)! STFU about it, gosh!
The genius of the show is that it is a future star branding factory for the UFC and it gives that amateur fighter hope that he can one day fight in the UFC.