MMA Junkie reports that episode 9 for TUF 16 on FX this past Friday received an average of 921,000 viewers. According to Television By Numbers, the ninth episode received a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 adult demographic.
The episode average is lower than 1.1M average last week.
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 16 Episode 5: 624,000
TUF 16 Episode 6: 811,000
TUF 16 Episode 7: 676,000
TUF 16 Episode 8: 1.1 million
TUF 16 Episode 9: 921,000 viewers
Payout Perspective:
Discovery’s “Gold Rush” owned Friday night on cable with over 4 million people tuning in for a 1.7 rating. WWE’s Smackdown received a 0.6 rating with over 2 million people tuning in. The rise in viewer average for the last two episodes of TUF could be attributed to the GSP-Condit Countdown shows on the same night. We will see how the last couple episodes do.
Uh, when exactly are they gonna bring back a comeback edition? Everyone knows the talent has been GARBAGE the past five, six, seven (?) seasons.
I wonder if the announcement of Chael vs Jones as coaches next season has sparked intested in TUF and got more people watchign the last few weeks? I would think that would have a bigger effect that the Countdown show. The Countdown show has never really had great ratings and has always relyed on programs around it to draw its respectable ratings. I doubt it is actually bringing in many views to TUF. Its always been the other way around. Thats why it follows TUF to get its fans.
Since the TUF coaching announcement all the forums have been in a heated discussion over the coaching decision or anticipation of the coaches. But either way TUF is being talked about. No doubt lots of those people decided or were reminded to catch the weeks episode.
It’s difficult to change a culture and that’s what the folks at FX are apparently trying to do. They’ve honestly got their work cut ot for them, though. People just don’t associate sports with FX. As an example, th other sport that FX airs is college football. Thus far in 2012 they’ve aired:
– #18 Stanford vs. Arizona
– UCLA vs. Utah
– California vs. #22 Stanford
– #4 Kansas State vs. #15 Texas Tech
– #21 West Virginia vs. TCU
Now, all but one of these games featured a team ranked in the Top 25 nationally. Yet, per what I’ve been told, none of those games averaged over 800,000 viewers (some averaging far, far short of that number). I think that, at least to some degree, people just don’t yet associate the channel with sports. It will take a long time to change that (if it ever changes at all). I don’t think FX wants to lose its identity as a channel with movies, original programming, etc… but I know that NewsCorp is trying to give them that extra dimension. They’re on year two of the college football experiment and my suspicion is that it will take a lot longer. FOX network itself is hoping for more viewership on its Saturday primetime football telecasts. As an example, Saturday’s matchup of #3 Kansas State keeping their national title hopes alive against TCU averaged 2.8 million viewers (0.8 18-49 year olds). That’s a little higher than the 2.36 million viewers (1.1 18-49 year olds) of the last UFC on FOX event (which went head to head with the Olympics) but FOX pays WAY more money for college sports rights so it’s an issue that is being dealt with all around. Overall, FX has made improvement in building a small sports identity but still has a long way to go. This is not unexpected to them. They knew that going in.