MMA Junkie reports that the fifth episode of TUF received a dismal 624,000 viewer average. The rating is the lowest for the TUF series.
TUF 16 Episode 1: 947,000
TUF 16 Episode 2: 872,000
TUF 16 Episode 3: 775,000
TUF 16 Episode 4: 1.1 million
TUF 15 Episode 5: 624,000
Payout Perspective:
One might argue that the MLB Baseball Playoffs were on Friday night but with the exception of last week, the ratings have dropped each week. Five episodes in and it still looks like there may not be a floor to the TUF ratings.
“FX is happy with another grand slam” – Uncle Dana
I’m really curious for the Brain Smasher excuses on this one.
I wouldn’t say last week’s ratings were good although they went up.
Last week:
The movie shown on FX at 6pm before the fights and the movie (Taken) shown at 11pm after the Ultimate Fighter scored higher in numbers and 18-49 demo.
FX MOVIE PRIME FX 11:00 PM 1.594 0.7
ULTIMATE FIGHTER FX 10:00 PM 1.056 0.6
FX MOVIE PRIME FX 6:00 PM 1.353 0.6
UFC FIGHT NIGHT FX 8:00 PM 1.084 0.6
BRAINSMOOSHER!!! “I ALWAYS SAID TUF WAS STALE”
STFU?
Christ, every time I come to site there is a depressing story about how everything is going downhill for MMA. That is my personal observation too, but damn it’s depressing witness. Fox is going to pull the plug on the UFC deal with these results.
The show has run it’s course in the U.S. The interested viewers have left (I’ve got to admit this is the first season that I’ve completely ignored), and they just aren’t going to get anyone new interested when the die hard fans are no longer telling their friends to watch. Most reality shows should never reach a 16th season, and TUF is no exception. None of this is surprising.
Anything new and exciting benefits from bandwagon fans. UFC was the exciting, new thing for almost a decade. It’s not anymore. UFC is 20 years old, 12 years under Zuffa management. If you are a 15 year old then UFC is the thing your uncle likes to talk about when he tries to be cool.
UFC still has tons of room to grow internationally. And it will cycle up and down in popularity on the back of it’s stars. Brazil is booming with Anderson Silva. But after Silva retires if other Brazilians don’t continue to dominate then the bandwagon fans in Brazil will go back to soccer.
UFC will only ever be a niche sport, but it can be a niche sport all over the world and make lots of money.
UFC should use more national rivalries to get that team sport flavor. Notice the UFC 153 was almost entirely a Brazilian vs some foreigner. Cause Brazilians love being on Team Brazil and seeing foreigners get beat up, especially Americans.
I believe if they had stuck with Spike, they wouldnt be inthis situation. It would have been far less tgen the 90 million annual fox deal but they would have ideal time slots for their target audience