MMA Junkie reports that 406,000 viewers tuned in to watch “Countdown to UFC 128” on SpikeTV this past Tuesday.
The show focused on the main event featuring Mauricio “Shogun” Rua versus Jon Jones. Not to be forgotten, Urijah Faber makes his UFC debut Saturday night versus Eddie Wineland.
Payout Perspective:
In case you did not get enough of Jon Jones, he was featured in his own pre-event preview on Thursday. In addition to the Countdown show, we should be ready for the beginning of the Jones era Saturday night. However, if Rua connects with one of his leg kicks, Jones could be in trouble. With all of the main event hype, one might forget that the face of the WEC, Urijah Faber, makes his debut. Although overshadowed on this card, the UFC will be able to market Faber and we can expect him to be one of the only fighters in the lighter divisions that can main event a card.
I would like to know the ratings for the replays as well, maybe at the end of the week. I seem to remember that there was evidence from recent countdown ratings that suggested a lot of people view the program on Versus or after the first broadcast (replays). It would be interesting to know the number of internet viewers, though this data is probably not available (I’ve been waiting until right before the prelims start to watch online because it helps build my anticipation). I also know a few of my friends watched it on Versus (not sure why though) instead of Spike.
The rating seems conspicuously low? Doesn’t it?
really low…i remember most of the countdowns being in the 6-700,000 viewer level.
seems like more people watched bellator on mtv2 last week.
Remember that this show is also free online.
You cant really get much useful info from the countdown numbers anymore. Before there was one countdown on Spike and if you missed it you might not get to see it at all. If you were lucky it would be on right before the PPV. Now its on multi channels multiple times. I used to make sure i caught the first showing. Now i dont even thing about it and always stumble across one of the airings. I watched the countdown today. Granted thats not a negative for the UFC. They want as many people as possible to see the hype of the event. It dont matter if it is spread over 100 different shows. But it does hurt us using the ratings as any type of gauge to judge interest in the event.
to marty michaels thats right around the number Bellator did which isnt good.
a live tournament event on MTV 2 doing the same amount of viewers as a countdown show on Spike on a weekday.
That a countdown show mid week does what a live bellator show doenst make Bellator look good.
ANd no actually Bellator did half that, Bellator does 200k, to 250k the first two weeks, so shit a countdown show doubles a live Bellator event.
Bellator did 230,000 for last weeks premiere and 240,000 for the immediate replay…which by anybody’s math is close to half a million viewers….
And that’s on a channel that most mma fans can’t find…and is only available in SD…
Spike is the channel of choice for MMA fans…and Jon Jones is being billed as the next big thing….
So those countdown numbers are really almost as unimpressive as the Diego Sanchez fight was on Versus.
That said, completely agree that Spikes lack of exclusivity on the countdowns make them less ” must see” tv on their premieres.