MMA Junkie reports that the ratings for the second episode of The Ultimate Fighter 16: Carwin vs. Nelson on FX dipped to an average of 872,000 viewers. Broken down, the numbers included a 0.8 rating for M18-49 and a 0.7 for M18-34.
The ratings for the two hour debut of season 16 scored 972,000 viewers. The one hour TUF Friday featured the first fight for the welterweights.
Payout Perspective:
The ratings are slowly declining to the point that we are resetting expectations for this show. Yet, Dana White stated that the show is a “home run” for FX’s target demographics. While the numbers may reflect the fact that it’s doing well with its target demos, White seems to be a little sensitive with the ratings decline. We will see if 872K will be the average of If it will dip even more this season.
For comparison:
Friday Night Smackdown: 2.861M viewers
So, WWE does 3x the # of total viewers.
TUF does decent with the young male demo which is saving it. In terms of total viewers, TUF was ranked about 87th on cable for Friday.
That’s terrible. TVByTheNumbers publishes the top 100 cable shows each day.
These are pretty bad numbers. People are not MMA fans, they are fans of fighters.
UFC as a brand is ok but the product isn’t good enough on it’s own for people to tune in.
I think the UFC i really missing on opportunity. They have legends of the sport and UFC with huge name value who have retired and i cant believe they havent tried to use them. I would try to get Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, and Tito Ortiz under contract with the UFC and make them permanent TUF coaches. I would also add Bas Rutten who is a name and interesting to round out the numbers at 4. Have two coached one season then the other two coaches so they dont get over used. This allows the UFC to capitolize further on the names they have built and keep them involved in the UFC. The UFC doesnt really want them working for anyone else anyway. Now you have big names to get people to tune in until the fighters get the fans interested themselves. 3 of those guys were coaches durign the 2 highest rated TUFs ever. So they have drawn before. The UFC would still hvae the option to use someone else on special occasions when there is two guys big enough to do it. But in stretches where you are using Roy Nelson, Carwin, and featherWeights no one knows. This would give them a draw. Chuck is supposed to still be under contract with the UFC to work in the office. Couture was at one time when he was retired and doing commentary and helping them with regulation. So they have done this before. Get them under contract and use them as perma coaches. This would be a great way to help ratings and get the fighters good training and keep the legends with the UFC.
What’s that?
UFC as a brand doesn’t draw? Of course it doesn’t. 9 million + Facebook fans doesn’t mean shit when they unsubscribe from that stupid page.
HAHAHAHA things not going well Simpson? Things getting rough on the unemployment line and letting it all out on the internet you steal from your neighbors? Dont worry Obama will get 4 more years to give you free loaders a living so you wont have to be jealous of Zuffa no longer!
All these “shitty” cards and the UFC still gets an automatic 200,000 buys and 1 million people to watch a bunch of guys who were fighting in high school gyms 6 months ago. I would say the brand is doing just fine. But the novalty of MMA has worn off to where they get the numbers they used to with ONLY the brand. Their numbers are good now. They are only bad when compared to peak UFC numbers. For the UFC to get those numbers again they have to rely on names they created to combine with the Brand. I guess you havent got to that part in your online GED classes. But you will. hahaha
Another week, another sign that MMA is not the fastest growing sport, nowhere close to any other major sport in America and certainly not neck-and-neck with soccer world wide.I feel like a complete moron for actually believing this at one time.
Things are going GREAT actually! It’s just a damn shame your husband’s company is going down the tubes.
Over by 2013 no doubt about it. OVER.
FOX will burn them until they are dead.
Just for the sake of holding folks accountable, is your official prediction/proclamation that:
1. The UFC will be dropped by FOX by the beginning (or end?) of 2013?
2. The UFC will be decimated as a company by the beginning (or end?) of 2013?
3. Something else.
I very well could be misunderstanding you. It’s just that, since you’re making an official prediction, I want to make sure it’s clarified so we can go back afterward and see how accurate it ends up being.
New corporate sponsors aren’t really into the brand as they have a tough image to align with as well as weak ratings.
What’s going on right now is that the UFC fighters are completely under exposed to a wide audience. Fuel kills them. PPV undercards kill them (less than 400k households regularly see these guys), TUF on FX is tanking. 4 FOX shows per year that aren’t replayed on FOX aren’t going to offset the viewership losses.
So in reality, FOX is benefiting the most from this deal while the UFC suffers.
Perhaps FOX won’t drop them as it helps them build Fuel and they generally give UFC non-premium time slots on FX and FOX so it doesn’t bother them with the low ratings but there’s no doubt that this deal has hurt the UFC more than most care to admit.
What happens when TUF hits 600k viewers?
What happens when FOX ratings hit new lows under 2M on a network available in over 100 million homes and does higher ratings with COPS?
It’s up to the UFC to stick with the FOX deal in order to see their supposed $100 million annually (I suspect realized revenue for the UFC is MUCH lower). It definitely won’t look good to another network to pick up the “hottest” “fastest growing” sport around when it’s public evidence that their ratings are horrific.
It could leave them in no man’s land by the end of next year.
Remember that boxing drama series called “lights out” on FX last year? It got cancelled because of low ratings. THe high for that show was 1,487m, the low 614K. The avg. was 813K. Just sayin’.
There is a few reasons for that Tim. Shows like that once they lose the ratings its almost impossible to get it back. The show is the show and there isnt much that can change. So when the ratings Tank as fast as they did. FX cant invest in another season. I was a fan of the show too. Another key reason is expense. Thats why reality TV and sports are so popular. The cost is very low. It is very expensive to have writers write the drama. So are the actors and location and production. It just isnt worth it. The cost of live UFC events costs FX and FOX almost nothing. TUF is extremely cheap compared to a Drama series. The show also didnt do well in the key demographics.
What i mean about the demographics is This TUF got 872K and got a .8 in the 18-49. Lights Out at 614K rating only got a .3 in the 18-49. I believe the final ratings isnt what killed the show. But rather how fast it tanked. If it was able to keep 600-800K ratings and a .6-.8 in the 18-49 i believe they would have kept the season going. But it declined so fast their was no sign it was going to stop.
Bottom line is that it still does not look good to have such a low ratings figure.
It accentuates the fact that the sport is not popular within itself and caters to a very finicky and fickle fan base.
Sponsors would not want to commit long-term.