'The Ultimate Fighter: Live' ratings are in
TUF times on FX?
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The Ultimate Fighter: Live on FX premiere drew a .95 rating on Friday, March 9 and averaged 1.3 million viewers.
Last season's TUF premiere on Spike TV averaged 1.5 million viewers with the show's original tape format.
The presentation was obviously much different with the live aspect of this new season--full fights and live mics with Dana White, Jon Anik, Urijah Faber, and Dominick Cruz. On top of that, TUF on Fridays, is well, tough, when much of Zuffa's coveted 18-34 year old demographic likes to go out at night. This could very well just be growing pains for the UFC's audience in terms of getting used to the new format, new time slot, and new channel.
What's not encouraging though is according to WrestlingObserver.com, TUF gradually lost viewers each hour (although it opened with 1.5 million viewers). The good thing about the live format though is that the UFC can still make changes to the show as the season progresses.
Via the Ultimate Fighting Championship:
FX’s Premiere of The Ultimate Fighter® Live Gets Off to a Strong Start
This Week the Series Moves to its Regularly Scheduled Time Period
Fridays Live at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT (Tape Delay at 10 p.m. PT/11 p.m. MT)
Coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber Pick Their Teams Friday
With the First Live Fight Between Team Cruz and Team Faber
LOS ANGELES, March 13, 2012 – The series debut of The Ultimate Fighter® Live on FX got off to a strong start Friday night (3/9/12, 9:00-11:38 PM) delivering 1.28 Million Total Viewers, 953,000 Adults 18-49 and 538,000 Adults 18-34, and ranking among the top five cable programs on Friday in Men 18-34 (#2), Adults 18-34 (#3), Men 18-49 (#4), and Adults 18-49 (#5).
The combination of The Ultimate Fighter® Live and its lead-in movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, propelled FX to cable’s #1 rank in primetime Friday (8-11PM) in delivery of Adults 18-49 (933,000), Adults 18-34 (532,000), and Men 18-34 (352,000). In addition, The Ultimate Fighter® Live (9-11:38 PM ET) was up +58% in Adults 18-49, +96% in Men 18-49 and +124% in Men 18-34 vs. year ago time period.
“We’ve been anticipating this day since FOX acquired the rights to UFC last summer and we knew it would be a special night for our network,” said Chuck Saftler, Executive Vice President of FX Networks. “The Ultimate Fighter®Live makes Friday nights on FX the ultimate destination for MMA fans. We’re thrilled with the performance of the premiere telecast and we look forward to an exciting season ahead.”
Compared to other MMA telecasts on Friday evening, The Ultimate Fighter® Live Season 1 debut significantly outperformed Spike’s repeat counter-programming of The Ultimate Fighter® Season 10 by +189% in delivery of Adults 18-34, +162% among Adults 18-49, +208% with Men 18-34, and +167% in Men 18-49, and it also battered live MMA bouts on MTV2 by +703% in delivery of Adults 18-34, +947% among Adults 18-49, +568% with Men 18-34, and +842% in Men 18-49.
In the premiere telecast, which was televised live, 16 of the best unsigned fighters in the world took their first step towards glory as they won their first round tournament fights. The result was some of the most intense, emotional and action-packed bouts in TUF history, including a startling eight-second KO. In addition, fighters were offered a bonus of $5,000 if they succeeded in scoring a submission or knockout in their fight. A total of $40,000 was handed out. With the win, the victors now move into The Ultimate Fighter® Live House for the next 12 weeks as they continue to compete for a lucrative six-figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®).
