‘The Ultimate Fighter Live’ Draws 1.3 Million Viewers for FX Premiere

The season premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter Live” drew an average of 1.3 million viewers to FX on Friday night, according to sources in the industry.

The live debut featured 16 one-round fights over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour broadcast, narrowing the cast from 32 members to the 16 fighters who will enter the “TUF” house. Coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber watched the proceedings cageside, along with UFC President Dana White.

Despite the new network and format, ratings failed to match the 2 million viewers the show averaged during its previous 14 season premieres on Spike. The previous low came during the Season 14 debut, as 1.5 million viewers tuned in to watch a collection of bantamweights and featherweights vie for a UFC contract.

Viewership peaked during the initial episode of “TUF 10,” when an average of 4.1 million viewers watched as coaches Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson presided over a cast of heavyweights that included YouTube fighting sensation Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. To counter the FX premiere, Spike enlisted Ferguson to host its first installment of “Ultimate Fighter Fridays,” which airs previous episodes of the show and drew an average of 653,000 viewers for its debut last Friday.

The Bellator Fighting Championships also began its sixth season on Friday; the main card aired on MTV2 and featured a featherweight title clash between Joe Warren and Pat Curran. For the next 12 weeks, each episode of “The Ultimate Fighter Live” will culminate with a live fight, but training and in-house interactions will be taped during the week. Spike will continue to air “Ultimate Fighter Fridays” opposite “TUF Live.”

They are getting lower ratings than they had on Spike. Zuffa = fail

Spike fans having a hard time transitioning to FX

goatfarmer wrote:Spike fans having a hard time transitioning to FX

all they got to do is put wwe on fx right before tuf...

I don't think anything will topple Kimbo vs James Thompson TV ratings wise any time soon which did 6.7 mill

I hope TUF fails and they have to cancel the crap. I´m tired of reading about TUF on all forums. Why don´t fans discuss non zuffa promotions instead? There are much better prospects fighting all over the world but most fans don´t seem to give a fuck but TUF is very important to them.

Johan Lofgren wrote:I hope TUF fails and they have to cancel the crap. I´m tired of reading about TUF on all forums. Why don´t fans discuss non zuffa promotions instead? There are much better prospects fighting all over the world but most fans don´t seem to give a fuck but TUF is very important to them.

because SHEEP go bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“We’ll more than double that when we go onto FX. I mean we’ll probably have more than 3 million viewers on FX watching the ‘Ultimate Fighter.” -Dana "Fail" White

I wonder if there are makegoods, which are free commercials given sponsors when the ratings promised were not reached. And I wonder how long before Zuffa and Fox end up in court.