“UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit”, a three-part series which aired on three consecutive Friday nights on FX, drew 657,000 viewers for it’s FX network debut.
After the debut episode, each of the following weeks saw a decline in viewership and overall, the three-part series averaged 540,000 viewers on FX. In January of 2011, the same time period on FX averaged 1.2 million viewers.
Here are the viewership numbers for all three episodes:
– “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
Here is a list of the viewership numbers for all Primetime debut episodes:
“UFC Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos” (UFC on FOX): 2,000,000 viewers (FOX)
“UFC Primetime: Rampage vs. Evans” (UFC 114): 1,200,000 viewers (Spike)
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Hardy” (UFC 111): 1,000,000 viewers (Spike)
“UFC Primetime: Lesnar vs. Velasquez” (UFC 121): 974,000 viewers (Spike)
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Penn II” (UFC 94): 880,000 viewers (Spike)
“UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” (UFC 143): 657,000 viewers (FX)
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Shields” (UFC 129): 610,000 viewers (Spike)
Estimated PPV Numbers for Primetime Featured Events:
“UFC Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos”: N/A
“UFC Primetime: Lesnar vs. Velasquez” (UFC 121): 1,050,000
“UFC Primetime: Rampage vs. Evans” (UFC 114): 1,050,000
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Penn II” (UFC 94): 920,000
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Shields” (UFC 129): 800,000
“UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Hardy” (UFC 111): 770,000
“UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” (UFC 143): 400,000
Payout Perspective:
The “UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” three-part series was one of the lowest rated in the history of the Primetime specials. It also sold only 400,000 PPV buys, which is almost half the next lowest Primetime special PPV event – St-Pierre vs. Hardy for UFC 11, which sold an estimated 770,000 PPVs.
Now, we should take into account that the Primetime special was supposed to be GSP vs Diaz, which would have done much better numbers. Curiously after GSP pulled out due to injury, the UFC scheduled Diaz vs Condit for the Interim WW Title and went ahead and continued their plans to film the Primetime special. As a result, it was one of the lowest “Primetimes” ever. Another factor here to consider is the cost of producing these Primetime specials, which is estimated to be between one and two million dollars. You have to wonder if the ROI for this event was worth it for the UFC.
In terms of viewership on the new FX platform, the Primetime special numbers depict a negative trending pattern as viewership started to decline after the first episode. As for reasons for the lower than expected viewership numbers, the time slot is not a desirable one considering that historically, networks have struggled to keep the 18-34M demographic in front of their TV sets on Friday nights. Another factor to take into account is the difficulty to move a show over from one network to another. It appears that FX is still going through a transitional phase trying to migrate the UFC fanbase that has called Spike TV home for years.
Interesting to see the ratings drop when FX shows a UFC product.
“It appears that FX is still going through a transitional phase trying to migrate the UFC fanbase that has called Spike TV home for years.”
That or maybe people are just tired of the stale and boring product the UFC is these days. I stopped watching the pathetic Primetime/countdown crap a long time ago.
I just got tired of baldy always saying, “Listen…listen…it’s going to be a war!”
Also, get rid of Jon Anik, the guy is boring.
Maybe people are not interested in watching a Stoner. The producer himself said all Diaz did was smoke pot and train. Pot heads are just not very interesting people. People watch PT shows to see the guys life style and stuff behind the scenes. Condit was not very well known and not a draw so he wasnt going to carry the ratings. Getting bad numbers is one thing but when those numbers decline so rapidly it clearly shows the ones who watched were not entertained or interested in those fighters or how the show was done. I didnt watch it so i dont know if it was bad or not. But you can see there are possible reasons and its not just FX or UFC to blame.
For me it is very frustrating listen to Diaz more than a few seconds. It seems most who like him have ADD like him. I dont believe the neilson research group cater to those type of people. It seems Diaz has some people who like him and a ton of people who want to see him lose which is great for his fights. But those who want to see him lose are not interested in watching his day to day life leading up to the fight.
I thought Diaz was one of the most compelling characters they’ve had on Primetime. He’s completely different from the fighters who try to come off as perfectly professional and polished (e.g. GSP) and those who are obviously trying to play the heel (e.g. Koscheck). Most fighters fall into one of those two buckets to some degree. The fact that Diaz doesn’t care about his image and popularity makes him an anti-hero in today’s Kardashian style self-promoting driven society. He’s certainly a unique individual. I think most of the problem is that people weren’t excited for this fight and no amount of cool training footage with even cooler Henry Rollins voice-over is going to change that.
I dont know anyone personally who likes the guys. He is just like every junkie loser who flips burgers at McDonalds imo. But he has some MMA skills. But there is nothing interesting or unique about him. It is actually depressing watching him. The guy could have anything in the world with the money he has made. But does nothing with it and has become a prisioner of his own mind. The guy is miserable and you never see him happy. Which is why he smokes his troubles away and doesnt do anything interesting. He is basically a recluse.
Shill on Brainsmasher. It’s funny to see.