MMA Payout has learned from a Nielsen source that the fifth episode of TUF received an average viewership of 509,000 viewers. In addition, MMA Payout has learned that the Wednesday night’s UFC Tonight scored an all-time high on FS1 with 242,000 viewers.
First, the 5th episode of TUF featured Felice Herrig defeating Heather Jo Clark in the fight of the episode. It was one of the lowest output for this season although it did go up against Game 2 of the World Series on Fox.
UFC Tonight sported its highest viewership average ever with 242,000 viewers in the 8pm ET time slot Wednesday. It was the debut of Daniel Cormier as the official co-host.
Payout Perspective:
There was a lot of press promoting Cormier’s debut so that might have played into the big ratings number. As for the TUF episode, the low number was likely considering it going opposite the World Series. The show also came off a two-week hiatus so that might have contributed to a sluggish number
“First, the 5th episode of TUF featured…. It was the lowest output for this season”
Looking at your chart, episode 3 appears to be the lowest Jason?
And 500k average viewership for a heavily promoted and meaningful (title shot) season of TUF = time for a reality show funeral.
LeontheSchmo sharing more of his delusional theories.
looks like LeonTheAmatuer has aloofly waltzed upon my stomping grounds.
you shouldve stayed yonder peering out of your fatuous window.
did you know that TUF was purely 0.05 away from trimming the nhl game on wednesday night?
does that mean its time for a hockey game funeral?
How does a singular hockey game compare to a reality series on a steady decline? When your ready to live up to your name let me know.
LeonTheAmatuer, you spoke without knowing the details because thats what people on the internet do. they make all kinds of vapid ASSumptions and speak empty, non-informed words. youre simply ONE of the MANY who dont know what they speak of.
if i can get a reality show to be near-tie-or beat live programming, then thats great for me. do you understand why its great?
decline?
TUF 19 TUF 20
595,000 536,000
320,000 574,000
421,000 433,000
438,000 577,000
417,000 509,000
show me the decline sweetheart? LMFAOOO
“I know that people are going to be inclined to focus on the live-plus-same-day number,” he said. “But what we’re trying to do is look at it more the way that Fox Entertainment executives would look at scripted shows and competition reality shows on their prime-time schedules and really take into account viewing beyond just the originally scheduled time period.” – Mike Mulvihill, senior vice president of programming and research for Fox Sports.
LeonTheAmatuer, just another one of those “guys” ( by “guys” i mean ignorant, idiots who shouldn’t even be on a website such as this discussing things they know NOTHING about)
TUF WILL be on television FOREVER
it just WORKS
it wont go away but you will little child…
educate yourself! and then you may verbally spar with me
“When your ready to live up to your name let me know.”
You should take your own advice.
“TUF will be on TV forever “- Sadly it might, if UFC let’s it run into the ground with 100k viewership on FS2.
Before you get into a long winded rant boasting how great TUF is and how it has a few more thousand viewers than last season, I’ll mention I was referring to the SERIES overall. From TUF1 to TUF20. I’d love to see the series average over time. Yea the show went from millions of viewers to this now, which you seem to think is great because you know everything about TV and your the super-geek of internet blogging?
It doesn’t take a genius to spot the direction the show is heading in. At 500k viewers (from millions) your basically left with the small hardcore group of fans that will watch any TV show the UFC shits out whether they have midgets coaching or a seniors TUF league. This core group of viewers will bounce around – as you pointed out – maybe a smidgeon more for this season and a bit less for the next, but the erosion is evident over extended time. I still stand by my sentiment and that’s to kill TUF and get going with something new. Heck 20 + seasons of a niche sports reality show is more than pushing it. With the trend their on it wouldn’t hurt to try something new.
kid, did you not just read what i posted? why are you harping on about live viewers?
“With live-sports programming, the same-day viewership figure is critically important. With a competition reality show like “The Ultimate Fighter,” overall consumption — including re-airs and DVR usage — is more important” – Mike Mulvihill, senior vice president of programming and research for Fox Sports.
you said so yourself “At 500k viewers your basically left with the small hardcore group of fans that will watch any TV show the UFC shits out”
why cancel that?
“Fox Sports and UFC were expecting a drop in the same-day ratings”
and btw the least-watched episode (LSD 433,000) was still 221,000 viewers above the primetime average on FOX Sports 1 (the UFC added a 104% increase in viewers the day that 433,000 episode aired)
so basically youre telling FOX and the UFC to get rid of a successful show because you want to “kill TUF and get going with something new”………………………
Leontheschmo making himself look like a moron again. Nothing new.
Leon, hardcores attack the truth with name calling, shake em off. TUF does suck and has for a long time. Now my story. When I heard Melendez signed back with the UFC, I was pumped. Then hear he is coaching the Ultimate fighter with Pettis, cool I might start watching it again. Plus they will fight for the title after the show, hell yes I’m all in!!! They will be coaching women!!! Crickets…WMMA=WNBA. God bless everyone of them and I hope they make a good living doing what they love but me and most guys I know, have zero interest in watching woman sports. Sorry. Commence with the name calling….
Actually the whole UFC is a joke now. Who knew all Matt Brown had to do to get a title shot, instead of putting together a 7 fight win streak, with 6 dynamic finshes was dye his beard red and claim to be irish. Hey Dana, ever heard of Cub Swanson? Edgar wrecks McGregors world.
“So basically youre telling FOX and the UFC to get rid of a successful show because you want to “kill TUF and get going with something new”
Because the writings on the wall. UFC pulls all the tricks it can and it still can’t get TUF ratings up – sex appeal, a new belt, FOX channel re-air, a red carpet, a new division – it ain’t workin. The slow demise of this audience is inevitable. I’m saying hit the refresh button and come up with an exciting new concept , surely they can do better. Retain the old fans and capture new ones.
“the least-watched episode (LSD 433,000) was still 221,000 viewers above the primetime average on FOX Sports 1”
What’s your point? FS1 has a lot of work to do? Even if the UFC is the highest rated show/league on the network, it’s been noted that most UFC fans are non-sports fans. They don’t show up to FS1 to watch sports – just the UFC. UFC fills a need right now. I wonder if FOX execs are really happy with sub-500k viewership… excuse me, 800k with the dvr and re-runs.
DforDelusional is just upset that all his predictions about UFC PPV are wrong this year. Earlier in the year I scorched him with my accurate predictions, while he kept procrastinating and saying UFC PPV would pick up in the 2nd half.
You should post some of your quotes D, or I can do it 🙂
6M ppvs and strong for 2015, that’s the latest.
Leontheschmo is pissed off that his predictions about ufc ppv were wrong last year and are going to be wrong again next year.
Do you want me to post some of your quotes? It will embarrass you badly.
3m ppvs and strong for 2015 that’s his prediction. When they smash that, what will his spin be next time? Probably just accuse some more chestnuts of being lazy or claim he invented the question mark.
“Because the writings on the wall.” LMFAOOOO 1.735 million viewers on FOX
they received that viewer number in random time zones across the country with little to no advertisement. the day of the airing it was basically “hey heres a rerun of the Ultimate Fighter!”
“Because the writings on the wall.” lets cancel the biggest loser! because theyre losing all that weight AGAIN! LMFAOOOO
“Because the writings on the wall.” lets cancel survivor! because theyre in that damn jungle AGAIN! LMFAOOOO
“Because the writings on the wall.” lets cancel the amazing race! because theyre racing through that damn city AGAIN! LMFAOOOO
oh and btw the biggest loser (last week) was -41.45% under the weekly total viewers in primetime average and -48% under the P18/49 average for the week!
the amazing race (last week) was -52% under the weekly total viewers in primetime average and -62% under the P18/49 average for the week!
survivor (last week) was -20% under the weekly total viewers in primetime average and -15% under the P18/49 average for the week!
i wonder why these “underperforming” shows arent gone yet!?!?!?!
could it be that overall consumption and dvr viewing actually DO matter when it comes to REALITY programming?!?!?! *shocked and stunned*………………..
CANCEL THEM ALL! such a shame that you dont have a clue about the discussion youre engaging in…………
take a guess at what reality show is above the weekly averages for their channel?
you know… that one you want cancelled……..
little old FOX Sports 1 the channel with practically no content to fill their hours and some guy wants them to throw away one of the most success shows they have……
all those hours of premiere airings, repeats, mini-marathons… gone!
hours of programming with nothing that will pull better averages…….
nothing to replace it……
lets just leave open space on our network because a show is “old”…………
The shows you mentioned have a much much…. much broader audience. The UFC is a niche sport with a dwindling North American audience, on a network no one watches. Totally different circumstances. Building back their customer base should be very important to them right now.
TUF will continue on the slope its on and I can see payout headlines already –
“TUF 26 Ep 2 – 125k Viewers – moved to FS2”
The ingenuity of TUF 1 is what made the UFC and brought it to the masses. Its obvious that running the series into the ground for 10 years now is not replicating the success. Time for something new.
here are the correct numbers
biggest loser (last week) was -53% under total viewers in primetime average
-59% under the P18/49 average for the week
survivor (last week) was -25% under total viewers in primetime average
-8% under the P18/49 average for the week
the amazing race (last week) was -55 under total viewers in primetime average
-58% under the P18/49 average for the week
i purposefully gave you the wrong numbers to see if you would do the research yourself or if youd simply just say “yeah looks true enough” LMFAOOOO
just…. WOW
you dont have the intelligence to understand anything im saying to you and that is very clear
why did you engage me in the first place?
youre completely ignoring the business aspects, not bringing ANY proper counter points to what im saying, and appear to be dazzled and befuddled
you dont know why reality shows just keep “chugging” along even with an averages loss (though TUF is gaining above the averages)
TOTAL waste of time………
i thought you would have had at least something for me……
very strange of you to argue with people who are more in depth than you
what do you get out of that? LMFAOOOO
Leon with more of his bullshit: “The ufc is a niche sport”. Tell that to boxing who they dominated in the North American marketshare for the past 7 years.
Pure delusions. Probably another Richard Schaeffer homo paid blogger.
Bullshit spitter you haven’t really countered my arguments either about where the ufc is going with TUF as a business… You just copy paste ratings. This site is about business not just TV numbers.
Really? You posted the wrong numbers on purpose? Or did you make a mistake. You still haven’t responded to this:
http://mmapayout.com/2014/07/bellator-120-re-air-on-spiketv-890k-viewers/comment-page-1/#comment-1012624
well the discussion started by discussing viewership did it not?
LeonTheAmatuer
“And 500k average viewership for a heavily promoted and meaningful (title shot) season of TUF = time for a reality show funeral.”
LeonTheAmatuer
“you haven’t really countered my arguments either about where the ufc is going with TUF as a business…”
where theyre going? well I hereby postulate that Zuffa will further separate the brands of the UFC and TUF. TUF will be completely its own brand and packaged to different networks (bravo, e!, spike, FX, FOX, etc.)
to the best demographics and, or the highest bidder they go!
sell a female flyweight division tournament to the e!/bravo channel
sell a male heavyweight division tournament to FOX/ABC/CBS/NBC/espn, etc.
sell a TUF gym vs gym series to nbcsn/spike/FX/FS1/espn2, etc.
put some sanshou fighters in a TRUE development program (2-4 years) and sell that TUF to cctv5
hell, we can even go the way of the world cup and pit multiple countries against one another to gain the biggest rights deals (selling a multitude of content to multiple broadcast and cable networks) TUF could ever receive (thats why we need a TRUE development program)
option to purchase the finale card gets an exclusive negotiation period (now obviously e! and bravo arent going to show a live fight card or are they? maybe full female card for the final ; this was close to happening this year with the TUF 20 Finale)
there have been talks of gathering wrestlers from India and putting them through a development program. THIS my friend… THIS is the key. the UFC needs a wholesale global expansion of their development programs.
im talking 24/7 non-stop prospect talent production, churning out some of the best and brightest fighters in the world (with some exclusive clauses in the contracts; wouldnt want your prospects sneaking away to someone else)
now we dont have to worry about signing guys from other organizations, the talent is truly “in-house” completely and when theyre ready you send some of them to TUF
also the aspects of Fight Pass can really come into play now. in addition to fight card, library, etc. we can have live streams of training, press tours, etc. a true real-time look at the day to day activities of a fighter
(maybe a TUF 24/7 exclusive to the platform of Fight Pass; multiple mounted cameras in the living quarters of the fighters who are competing, one to two person camera crew assigned to each fighter, etc. all of this streamed live 24/7 with every single second of footage archived in cloud storage available for viewing mere seconds after being recorded live.
the viewers will be allowed to watch whatever stream they want of any of the fighters and even be allowed to view multiple streams at the same time)
there are just soooooooooooooooooooo many different ways and paths TUF could potentially go, its mind-boggling………
The Gym vs Gym idea (non-tuf) has been brought up many times and quite frankly they should have done this AGES ago. TUF isn’t really achieving anything right now for the UFC brand. As you know, it’s basically just filling a time slot for FS1.
Your other ideas – while creative – are over-zealous at this point. There is simply nowhere near enough interest in MMA for them to be feasible. For example, in the US, sub-1,000,000 people actually regularly follow the UFC. That’s 0.003% of the population. That means when you go out to walk the dog, (almost) none of your neighbors will be able to greet you and have a chat about the fight last night. For a sport, that’s about as niche as it gets. The US is the golden goose (and home) to the UFC so if it hasn’t expanded here, chances are this is a sign of things to come for everywhere else. The only place I can see MMA being more popular than North-America is Brazil but they don’t bring in the same revenue as here.
This is why I suggested to kill the TUF series in favor of something that might capture new (and more) viewers, and even co-promote, like a Gym vs Gym or similar. Also I have a hard time believing there is serious interest with fans regarding Straweight female fighters. I would be very interested to see a viewer poll regarding the lower weight classes.
**0.3%
“Your other ideas – while creative – are over-zealous at this point.”
as was stated, they are merely postulations; not full on scrupulously thought-out forecasts
“in the US, sub-1,000,000 people actually regularly follow the UFC.”
viewer totals are of no concern (unless youre speaking about reality television and non-linears) the multitude of the targeted demographics pay out heavily
“That means when you go out to walk the dog, (almost) none of your neighbors will be able to greet you and have a chat about the fight last night. For a sport, that’s about as niche as it gets.”
the current deal in the u.s.a. has no frequent and determined presence with any of the tastemakers
” Also I have a hard time believing there is serious interest with fans regarding Straweight female fighters.”
there are nowhere near enough data sets to determine that; the TUF 20 Finale Card is 72% Strawweight fights, so that will be an early indicator
“The US is the golden goose (and home) to the UFC”
“golden goose”? in terms of?
” TUF isn’t really achieving anything right now for the UFC brand.”
you truly need to clarify your position. it isnt “achieving anything” right now?
you cant be serious………
“As you know, it’s basically just filling a time slot for FS1.”
its not simply “just filling a time slot”
its introducing fighters to an audience
its above the averages in its multiple time slots
its used as a lead-in and a lead-out
its used to make sponsorship deals
its used as a brand and sponsor awareness beacon
those are just a few reasons, there are more
“This is why I suggested to kill the TUF series in favor of something that might capture new (and more) viewers”
TUF needs no solution, its going exceptionally well
there is NO need to extinguish it, besides you can keep TUF and create this new series; they can coexist
“The only place I can see MMA being more popular than North-America is Brazil but they don’t bring in the same revenue as here.”
“revenue”” in terms of?
I don’t think TUF is going well at all. The only perspective where that could be logical is to say it’s doing well compared to other programs on FS1. As mentioned numerous times the series has plummeted in ratings since it’s early seasons. It’s doing terrible in fact compared historically, not well.
Also there have been no real stars produced from TUF for ages and barely any of the fighters after the first few seasons have had an impact. So people watch this show of nobodies fighting nobodies who become nobodies in the organization. What’s wrong with that formula? The one hour a week could better be spent like a gym vs gym with ppv as a conclusion. They could promote rookies and vets and also cook up some beef while they’re at it.
The North American market is the most lucrative that’s what I meant. While MMA is more popular in Brazil the market doesnr bring in as much revenue ie. lower gates, no ppv, etc.
And of course viewers are important it’s a metric that allows you to identify your market. Have no idea why you say that.
Being aware of that 0.3% lets you know that “world fucking domination” isn’t happening anytime soon lol.
“And of course viewers are important it’s a metric that allows you to identify your market. Have no idea why you say that.”
LMFAOOOO pay more attention; I stated “VIEWER TOTALS”
what good does grandpa and grandma watching do for me?!?!?!?!!?!!?!?!
youre not making sense………
“While MMA is more popular in Brazil the market doesnr bring in as much revenue ie. lower gates”
the expansion is not even near to being done and of course the “home base” will have the veritable lions share of gate revenue; such non sequiturs being doused upon the discussion LMFAOOOO
“Brazil… no ppv”
LMFAOOOO come on now, are you being clueless on purpose or is that really your line of thinking?!?!?
“It’s doing terrible in fact compared historically, not well.”
youve slipped out of your depth and out of your mind
with your fear of knowledge flowing out behind you
LMFAOOOO
are we in the mid 2000s? were on a live sports network now…… its doing FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR better than EVER before………
“Also there have been no real stars produced from TUF for ages and barely any of the fighters after the first few seasons have had an impact. So people watch this show of nobodies fighting nobodies who become nobodies in the organization.”
how do you quantify this assumed “star”?
TUF is doing what its supposed to do; offering a “melting pot” platform/opportunity for fighter promotion, fighters impacting divisions, names viewers follow or take note of/interest in, etc.
Uriah Hall
Kelvin Gastelum
Luke Barnatt
Michael Chiesa
Al Iaquinta
Dennis Bermudez and on and on and on……
child, go back to your room; let the adults take of the business