MMA Junkie reports that this past Saturday’s Strikeforce event on Showtime peaked at 806,000 viewers. The event average on Saturday grabbed 528,000 viewers.
It was the fourth highest rated Strikeforce show on Showtime:
- “Strikeforce: Silva vs. Fedor” (February 2011): 741,000 viewers
- “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg” (August 2009): 576,000
- “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg” (January 2011): 561,000
- “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley” (April 2011): 528,000
- “Strikeforce: Miami” (February 2010): 517,000
(list via MMA Junkie)
Payout Perspective:
A good showing from Strikeforce due in part to Diaz and Melendez defending their titles on the card. The Diaz-Daley fight will probably be one of the best rounds of this year. The strong ratings may also speak to the drawing power of Diaz and Melendez. Nick Diaz has fought in three of the top five highest rated Strikeforce events on Showtime.
Solid. The card with Walker did slightly better, but Nick is clearly the guy putting butts in the seats for the arena series shows.
I agree that Diaz has a strong following and he showed why but I think a big increase in viewers was also due to the UFC promoting it as well. I seen UFC talking about it on facebook, youtube, twitter, etc… Obviously the UFC has an incredibly large fan base and with them owning Strikeforce now I see a spike in viewers for all future events.
The Junkie article clearly fails to mention Fedor vs Werdum, which averaged 550,000 viewers and peaked at 700,000, making it the 4th highest rated Strikeforce show broadcast on Showtime.
Sorry, make that 412,000. I was referencing one of Junkie’s own articles, ironically.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/19734/source-fedor-vs-werdum-ratings-up-56-percent-rates-third-highest-ever-for-showtime.mma
What can we take away from this rating? Does not seem like the UFC push for the show did much to improve viewers for Showtime. These are respectable numbers for sure but I was expecting numbers at the level of the the HW Grand Prix round 1 with all the push this even was getting.