MMA Payout has learned that Wednesday night’s UFC Fight Night 29 received an average of 638,000 viewers. In addition, TUF which immediately followed received 725,000 viewers.
UFC Fight Night 29 prelims which aired at 2pmPT/5pmET earned 200,000 viewers. UFC Fight Night 29 overran into TUF’s television spot so those (like me) that just recorded TUF found the end of the Shields-Maia fight and missed a portion of TUF. Fortunately the Duke-Pennington fight is now online.
TUF 18 Episodes
Episode 1: 762,000 viewers
Episode 2: 870,000 viewers
Episode 3: 639,000 viewers
Episode 4: 778,000 viewers
Episode 5: 640,000 viewers
Episode 6: 725,000 viewers
UFC Fight Nights on FS1
UFC Fight Night 26: 1.78 million viewers
UFC Fight Night 27: 824,000 viewers
UFC Fight Night 28: 539,000 viewers
UFC Fight Night 29: 638,000 viewers
Payout Perspective:
If you missed TUF last night, you probably missed the best women’s fight so far in the UFC. Once again the women are outshining the men on TUF this season. So far, the ratings reflect a higher rate of viewership when the women are fighting than when the men are featured.
As for the UFC Fight Night ratings, it did better than UFC FN 28, another event from Brazil. However, it competed with St. Louis-Pittsburgh in the deciding game of their series.
This season could have been huge on FX. Even on an all mens sports network the woman are increasing the ratings. Their fights have been great. IF this was on FX where there are a more mixture of Demo’s and woman and programs and dramas that bring them in. This season could have pulled great ratings and maybe started trending. The timing to move TUF was horrible! Being a reality show they could have justified leaving it on FX. Hell even a poor time slot on FOX would be huge and this season could have pulled it off.
Woulda,coulda,shoulda…
The female fights have sucked with the exception of the Pena fight, which was entertaining, but certainly not technically good.
This last fight on TUF was way overhyped. But if people want to believe the hype of WMMA’s popularity, go ahead and fill a card up with female fights and see what happens. MMA still has plenty of room to fall.