MMA Payout has learned that the second episode of TUF 20 last week on FS1 received an increase of 65% to 946,000 viewers. This reflects a bump of 372,000 viewers..
The Live + 3 viewership average (excluding Ep 1’s Fox re-air) is slightly over 888,000 viewers and the live viewership average is 555,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
The increase in viewership from DVR views reflects the fact that people are recording the show to watch later which may be good for the overall number but does not really help advertisers. In comparison to Bellator DVR numbers, more which have modest increases, a great deal of people are recording TUF for later.
That could be a few factors at play here. It’s not a live event, could be the time slot where people want to see it live but can’t, or there is a lot of loyal fans who will watch it but not interested enough to be high on their priorities to see it live.
I think the UFC really needs to change things up with the show. There is clearly interest and a following but many are hanging on by a thread. They already have lost half of its old audience. I think even a great show will be hurt by the TUF brand. People are tired of it and the feelings of that brand is over shadowing their feeling towards the product at this point. It’s like that great low budget movie that few saw, little advertisement but it wins all the awards. It’s going to take an aweful lot to over power the feeling of the show being stale after so many stale seasons.
The UFC really needs to change things up with the show. Maybe they should try out a tournament format, seeding the fighters at the start of the season and letting them fight it out to the end. That’d be really exciting, and they’ve never done that before, And then maybe make it for the UFC title, where the winner of the TUF season actually becomes the UFC champion. They’ve never done that before either. I know it’s asking for a lot, but I think those two changes could really turn things around. But they really need to change things up cause it’s going to take an awful lot to keep TUF from getting stale.
Yawn
so the top mma tv draws are bellator www stile programing of women’s ufc. Sponsors and network scratching their heads.
Saldaqueef!