Television By Numbers reports that the third episode of The Ultimate Fighter on Tuesday scored an average of 1.191 million viewers. Despite the much-hyped knockout, the ratings were down once again.
According to TBN, TUF received a 0.7 rating. The spin kick executed to perfection by Uriah Hall was hyped by the UFC and drew much twitter traffic. Adam Cella was knocked out cold but was able to make it back to his feet. Unlike most knockouts, there was stunned silence by those in attendance.
TUF 17 Episode 1: 1.51 million
TUF 17 Episode 2: 1.27 million
TUF 17 Episode 3: 1.191 million
Payout Perspective:
The ratings are disappointing considering the promise of a highlight reel knockout. While the social media buzz was good, translating it into viewers didn’t happen. Realistically, the casual fan could have tuned into the last 10 minutes of the show or watched it later online. We’re only three episodes in but it appears that the ratings may be at the same level as past seasons on FX.
I think the hardcore fans want to see more training/coaching and the casuals want to see Chael to go at Jones doing his usual gimmick, hard to find middle ground imo.
as i said last week. the ratings will continue to slide till it matches the terrible ratings from last season.
the better time slot, entertaining coaches and fake hype will mean nothing.
From my experiences with TUF ratings. When something great happens it ussually reflect on the next weeks ratings. This KO although didnt help the ratings this week is always a good thing. I really dont expect there to be some massive word of mouth movement to effect these ratings. Once it has happened the show is over. Unlike a Bonner/Forrest fight where people get excited and still have 2 more rounds to tell everyone to turn the channel to TUF. But this KO is all over the internet and that good press will help promote the show either boosting next weeks ratings for slowing the decline. It could also get viewers later in the season when they hear of more things from the show. This made Hall a big name. Seeing as he will be on the show for a while he will help ratings and if he wins the show could be a big star in the making. So i expect this KO to help TUF moving forward.
Brain Smasher…you are dead on right my friend! I havent watched TuF since season 4 The Comeback which i thought was a good show premise.Im only semi tuning in to see Sonnen run is mouth at Jones,whoever but even then that would run its course…gotta question for everyone?..Is the whole concept behind this show so limited that Dana n co.cant revamp it to get more people to tune in? Cuz it seems like the same crap everytime when i do tune in to watch then i just change the channel
It’s just run its course Sergio. At this point, I think enough of the past core audience has wrung their hands of TUF that any major change in the format will effectively be too late. It does nothing to build stars or consistent talent for the UFC, and it usually does nothing to bolster PPV buys (so many coaches fights have fallen through it’s ridiculous) in its current form, and I’d like to see it just go away. Hopefully it will when the live events are moved to Fox Sports 1. The president of FX has publicly stated that they dislike reality shows. I just think TUF is completely unnecessary for the UFC at this point, and that the resources put into the show could be better allocated to bolstering their promotional efforts.
They really need to start promoting each event in a unique manner; they promote them ALL the same way, which is why it was so stupid that Dana and co. were like “what do you mean people don’t feel like Aldo vs Edgar is a super fight?” How would they? THEY PROMOTED IT THE SAME WAY AS ANY EVENT.
I think with the current format it is hard to revamp it. At first the show did well because MMA was new. Any MMA format would have done well. BUt as the show went on you realize you just dont get to know the real players of the show when it is split among 16 people who are always together. The only thing that could save this format but i wouldnt suggest it due to the black eye for the sport. Is if fighters were allowed and did get into fights in the house. Through out the shows history people know there are rules to prevent that. So when it does happen it would be rare and no one will be watching by that time. Is people were fighting in the house like The real World or something. A 16 man show like this could still be strong.
The only way to change the setting and not keep them locked up(fans are locked in the house too) and the only way to tell the fighters story is to go with 4-6 fighters. Then you can see them train at their normal gyms and live their normal life. Or even put them in famous gyms. Send one to AKA, the other to , MFS, the other to Ceasar Gracie, etc. There you have more of a reality show and everyone isnt forced into a cookie cutter schedule. If everything about the show, the house, the gym, etc, how can anyone expect anything different? Follow 4 guys doing their own thing and you got an unpredictable show people will watch.
Mike Van/Brain Smasher-THANK YOU both for your insight n info! No joke when i say ive been following the sport since mid-90s n i remember back in 2002 Dana talked about the sport being on TV like it was a pipdream n now that its here…I/we sometimes feel like it should go back underground.Dana n Co have done a really good job expanding on an international level..so what do you guys think they can do to attract new viewers? is it really a matter of flooding the media with ufc content and raising a new generation(anyone born after 2000) on this content?
I think as long as it’s pulling in 1M viewers they will keep it around and it’s probably worth keeping it around. If it makes money, it makes sense.
As for boosting viewership, I think they’ve peaked. If they can plateau instead of dip, that would be a success.
I think the best way to grow is just survive. Any sport that has lasted and become apart of the culture starts to attract everyone. All the Major sports started as just men’s sports. Through time they crossed over to people of all ages and sex. NASCAR being the most recent.
The biggest threat to this IMO is two things. Fighter pay and rival promotions to the UFC. We need to be a sport that is not tearing itself apart from the inside. UFC has done wonders to get the sport and the rules accepted. Yet 10 years later we still have promotions making their own rules. When someone makes elbows illegal it causes more consumer confusion. StoP reinventing the wheel. Take what the UFC has created and take 3 steps forward. Not 3 steps back. This selfish irresponsibility from promoters sets the sport back. If you remember back in the day Dana announced there would be a tv deal every year and it never came. He was very picky on what deal he made. They turned down a lot of money to assure the future of the sport. Then you see Elite Xc jump on CBS and for millions of people their first MMA experience was a 2 bit opporation with Kimbo as the face of the sport. IMO that set the sport back 10 years.
The UFC can not take losses while they expand into other countries If their profits are small and fighter pay is high. With lower fighter pay they can go into a region and put their best foot forward. With high salaries they can’t take big fights to those cities. Look how much they lost in their European expansion. It actually reflected in their credit rating. That was with mid level talent and lower fighter pay. How can they do that again with salaries rapidly on the rise?
These are what I think will hold the sport back and ironically the fans love both. They want fighters to make more and the UFC to make nothing and want a promotion to compete with the UFC and have talent watered down so we get worse fights.
With a company who has shown they care about the sport, UFC, as the captain of the ship. I think the sport will be huge with time if the money grabbers, fighter and promoter, stop bringing it down.
TVbythenumbers only rates the top 100 shows on cable for any given day, so I’ve taken those stats for this week so far (Sunday – Thursday) and below are the ratings for sports programming on cable this week (two MMA shows in the top 8 is very impressive in my opinion):
1st – NBA on TNT (Thursday at 8:00); 2.6 million viewers; 1.1 in Adults 18-49
2nd- College Basketball on ESPN (Tuesday at 9:00); 2.4 million; 0.8 Adults 18-49
3rd – The Ultimate Fighter on FX (Tuesday at 9:00); 1.2 million; 0.7 Adults 18-49
4th – NBA on TNT (Thursday at 10:30); 1.3 million; 0.6 Adults 18-49
5th – College Basketball on ESPN (Sunday at 2:00); 1.3 million; 0.5 Adults 18-49
6th – NBA on ESPN (Wednesday at 9:00); 1.1 million; 0.5 Adults 18-49
7th – College Basketball on ESPN (Thursday at 7:00); 1.3 million; 0.4 Adults 18-49
8th – Bellator MMA on SPIKE (Thursday at 10:00); 0.8 million; 0.4 Adults 18-49
Said it before and will say it again. MMA has become a legitimate cable sports property.
It’s going down.it has peaked already.mma is a product of marketing machinery of Dana white.now the substance should keep it going.majority of casual fans would go somewhere else.its like the x games back in the nineties….but I’m sure brainsmasher would always be there for the UFC lol…
Everything at any point has a peak you tool. UFC has peaked until it peaks again. Only fools like you write something off because it doesnt set records year after year. When you do keep setting records there is a reason. Look up Health South lol
Don’t be emotional brainsmasher.facts are facts.any product in the world is launched by big marketing /advertising.spending is the key. sooner or later the product should stand on its own with minimal marketing and see if the consumers really like the product.upto now the ufc continuous to hard sell it’s market.not a good sign at all.
“‘ It’s going down.it has peaked already.mma is a product of marketing machinery of Dana white.now the substance should keep it going.majority of casual fans would go somewhere else.its like the x games back in the nineties…”
Sorry Tops but its kind of weird you are making these statements on the basis of the falling ratings of a reality television show.
I do agree that the ratings of the Ultimate fighter will continue to drop. The format is simple dead. But since it went on so long already you cannot really say they had a bad time of it considering how fast other reality type shows usually lose there steam.
Now as for the UFC as a sport, why do you think it has peaked? MMA does more solid PPV numbers then any combat/entertainment related event. They have exponential growth in overseas markets,more and more people are beginning to practise it as a standalone sport on base level and it just got some major support from big networks for the first time in years.
Now it will never grow as big as either the big four sports in the States. Nor will it rival boxing in its highs for the forseeable future (i believe that was a combination of unique characters,history but generally also the fact that people had a lot to entertain them at that particular time) but it is here to stay and will grow incrementally bigger.
This will especially be the case when older generations,with certain prejudices will leave the fields that impact MMA as a sport. A younger generation will be more open to embracing it as mainstream and will be more open to investing in it.
Also the fact that wrestling is dissapearing from the Olympics will have a major impact. It will make the transition for wrestlers to MMA even more necessary and it shows that MMA actually does have a chance as an Olympic sport because commercialisation is a big factor (and the growth of MMA in the world wide market is pretty stellar).
On Topic again….if they do not chance the format so viewers actually have a direct impact on the choices of the fights i do not see much future in it. I think Bellator took the smarter approach in that regard. But i do think the UFC or MMA in general really do not need the TUF format anymore. Its a little outdated. I rather see them set up a feeder league for young talent. I still watch the show though but its been around to long for people to still get really excited about.