The Wrestling Observer (subscription required) reports that UFC Fight Night 35 held Wednesday night on FS1 scored 629,000 viewers. After the live event, The Ultimate Fighter Nations received an average viewership of 371,000 viewers.
UFC Fight Night from 7-10pm ET which featured Luke Rockhold KO Costa Philippou was the first Fight Night in the U.S. since Fight for the Troops in November which featured another Strikeforce alum, Tim Kennedy.
The first episode of Ultimate Fighter Nations features Canada v. Australia with coaches Patrick Cote and Kyle Noke.
Payout Perspective:
The Fight Night ratings are the second lowest on FS1. UFC Fight Night 28 from Brazil featuring Ryan Bader taking on Glover Teixeira scored only 539,000 viewers. An event on Wednesday night when most of the west coast is just getting home from work (4-7pm) and no real stars on the card was the recipe for this overnight rating. What will be interesting is seeing the DVR numbers which Fox is starting to look more at instead of its live overnight when gaging success of its programming. Speaking of which, TUF Nations live ratings were low even though it had a live event lead-in. But, how much can you expect from the TUF franchise, especially when it features international fighters. This series is geared toward serious MMA fans and likely not the casual viewer.
So …. new record low for TUF? TUF 18 set the last all time low in the mid 400s.
Haha
Wasn’t TUF made for Canada? These ratings are FS1 in the US and do not count Canada I believe. So I do t think these numbers are bad. With these coaches and countries. They sure are not trying to pull in huge US viewers. This is like TUF Brazil. Any viewers they get is a bonus. I didn’t expect this many viewers.
With the addition of more international FightPath cards, I think this is more in line with the lack of quality and depth we can expect from the FightNIght franchise. Tue, hardcores will watch, but there is limited casual fan appeal. There was absolutely zero buzz for thiscard, and even the MMA media barely covered it live.
TUF is just a tired franchise. Time for a reboot or retool. I am sure people smarter than me can come up with some interesting suggestions (I like the concept of actual fight camps AKA, ATT, Blaczillions, Ruffas etc) each putting up X fighters with their own coaches. I look to Real World which just did a retool which seems to be working (week to week increase 50k viewers with 0.1 uptick in key demo rating) as an example it can work (also Survivor is not afraid to try changes, good and bad, to keep it interesting). I tried to watch TUF but was so bored .. I ended up just fast forwarding to the fight which I will continue to do for the remainder of the season.
I called it. Did they learn NOTHING last time??? How do they expect to get TUF ratings after five hrs of live programming?? There’s a lil something called burnout. Not only did it lead to absolute crap TUF ratings, they went out of their way to push up Fight Night an hour. So they undeniably hurt the ratings for both. RE-TARDED. Like Meisha Tate gameplan retarded. Did they learn NOTHING last time????
I don’t understand people angry over the ratings. Look at the coaches. Its filmed in the middle of no where in Canada. It features Canada vs Au. Did anypone expect this to match US TUF’s? This isn’t even supposed to get ratings here. It is just something they threw on tv.
The question is. What kind of viewers are they getting in Canada and Australia?
Just because it wasn’t supposed to get strong ratings is no excuse for retarded programming (whether that’s on Fox or UFC, I don’t know, but probably an even split of both). As I said, they went out of their way to push Fight Night up an hour, hence hurting the ratings of BOTH.
BTW, what the heck was the Aussie fighter trying to say in the Canada locker room after the fight? Man that was the most awkward thing ever. For Pete’s sake, will you please think of what you’re going to say before trying to talk? Maaan you looked like an inarticulate, illiterate, bumbling bozo.
I don’t think there is any way to gear the product to those countries and make it any more successful here. It was never going to get 800k to 1 million viewers. With that said it would be silly for FS1 and the UFC to not show it here at all. It did 371,000 viewers which means it pretty much is better numbers than anything else FS1 has. This is banus material for FS1 and it almost matched the ratings of their motorcross event that they paid specifically for.
As for the show. I would be surprised if Au can hand with Canada. The aussie mma scene is very weak compared to pretty much any other countries the UFC is dipping its toes in.
And don’t act like this was something they just decided to throw on last minute, BS, it was getting a heavy promo/ad push for what, at least a month? No, they were banking on getting a decent amount of viewers in the US too.