MMA Fighting reports that the debut of The Ultimate Fighter 17 scored an average of 1.51 million viewers. Its the highest rating for the TUF franchise since moving to FX.
The two hour Tuesday debut on FX featured coaches Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones.
Payout Perspective:
This season featured a different production look and it will be interesting to see how it will be received. The rating is a huge improvement from its Friday time slot. We will see if it can continue with the ratings.
Days and draws make a huge difference
New coaches, so what? The format is worn out. Will not be watching.
New time is the biggest factor. The target demo is out and about on Friday night… not staying at home watching this stuff
I taped and watch same day (to avoid the commercials). I watched some of the backstory stuff on the first few guys (i liked having the family and friends there), but then got quickly bored and fast forwarded to the fights and the Chael/Jones commentary. I believe they will be better than Carwin/Nelson, and the shift in the night certainly helps. But at the end of the day it will all revolve around the quality of the fights and fighters, at least for me.
Hardcores will be turned off by format by the numbers should retain a percentage of casuals.
It was like the Contender series for boxing, more people knew Sergio Mora and Alfonso Gomez over legitimate champions. It was a very interesting occurrence.
With all the hype.ratings kinda weak.brainsmasher what’s your latest pr spin on this lol
Good to see ratings turning around for the UFC, although time will tell if these types of numbers can hold up. They most likely will not.
After reading comments from some, I’m reminded how out of whack expectations are for some. So, primetime college basketball on ESPN on Tuesday nights (featuring ranked teams) hits 1.5 million and ESPN is fine with that…..but MMA fans are to be discouraged that a fringe sport has a reality show in its 17th season that reached 1.5 million viewers? Put plain and simple, if FOX isn’t happy with the ratings any piece of programming is getting, they’ll pull the plug. They are not a charity. One day (as with all shows on television), TUF will end and be replaced by another show. Given all the factors, it’s amazing to me that it has done as well as it has.
I think the expectations are being compared to what TUF did on Spike TV. Compared to Spike, the numbers are still a disappointment since the move to FOX/FX was supposed to be onward to bigger and better things.