MMA Junkie reports that Spike TV will counterprogram FX’s The Ultimate Fighter debut on September 14th with a Roy Nelson marathon. The programming on Spike will include Nelson’s fight with Kimbo Slice during TUF 10.
While the Big Country marathon begins on Spike TV at 8pm ET/PT, TUF on FX starts with a 2 hour premiere at 9pm ET/PT. Nelson serves as a coach opposite Shane Carwin on TUF this season. During TUF 10, Nelson was a Heavyweight on Team Evans and eventually won TUF as well as being the one to eliminate Kimbo Slice.
Payout Perspective:
Likely the last time that Spike TV will attempt to counterprogram TUF. What’s interesting will be the ratings during the Kimbo Slice/Nelson fight. One may recall that TUF 10 (Evans/Rampage) was the last TUF with decent ratings. It also received a bump due to ratings maven Kimbo Slice. Despite what you think of the streetfighter, Slice brought some serious ratings to the TUF franchise. The TUF 10 debut scored an incredible 4.1 million viewers. If you compare that to last season’s TUF ratings on FX, it makes sense that Spike TV is doing this.
Less than 4 months left. It will be interesting to see if SPIKE goes out with a bang with their UFC programming, or if they let it die on the vine to try and make the transition to Bellator go more smoothly.
MV,
My guess is that Spike will want to transition to Bellator/K-1 stuff by Nov-Dec. But maybe we see a GSP marathon for his big return this fall?