UFC Fight for the Troops Pulls in Strong Rating

by Michael Rome on Dec 12, 2008 5:28 PM EST in News Comment 23 comments

UFC Fight for the Troops averaged 2 million viewers and a 1.43 household rating on Wednesday night, according to MMA Junkie:

Wednesday's Spike TV broadcast of the "UFC Fight Night 16: UFC Fight for the Troops" event drew a 1.43 household rating and averaged two millions viewers during its three-hour run.

Spike TV today announced the ratings details for the Dec. 10 broadcast.

The event, which served as a night-long fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, drew more viewers in the key men 18-49 demographic (961,000) than ESPN's broadcast of an NBA game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers (893,000).

The number is particularly strong considering the fact that the show had little to no star power on it. The last 3 hour Fight Night was in April 2008, on a loaded card headlined by Kenny Florian and Joe Lauzon. That card only drew a 1.1.

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I told you that Justin McCully has drawing power.

by Rundownloser on Dec 12, 2008 5:05 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yep...

everyone was just hoping that his fight would make the air…

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 12, 2008 5:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

2 million people were devastated.

by Rundownloser on Dec 12, 2008 5:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Atleast 750,000 of those people were watching for Brodie Farber and they were all very disappointed.

by DirtyML on Dec 12, 2008 5:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Beating LeBron in primetime is nothing to sneeze at.

by subo on Dec 12, 2008 5:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Hes NO Kobe and the Lakers.
They get the ratings for the NBA.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Dec 12, 2008 6:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It helps the UFC that there were 8 other NBA games on that night. When there’s 8 live MMA events on and the UFC is still doing a 1.4 somewhere, maybe it’ll be worthy of comparison.

by D.Capitated on Dec 12, 2008 9:49 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think that while thats not a big deal as far as the NBA goes, for an anti-social niche sport like MMA I think its a pretty good sign that we’re moving forward.

by asa on Dec 18, 2008 9:53 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Man the UFC just continues to get good news after good news almost every week, it was a great event and hopefully this means that TUF 8 Finale will get even more viewers Saturday because of it.

by Raker on Dec 12, 2008 5:44 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

its an unstoppable frate train.

by banter on Dec 12, 2008 7:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

This show did do surprisingly good numbers, but they can’t be seen as good compared to UFC Fight Night 14, which took place earlier this year to counter Affliction Entertainment’s debut show, peaked with 4.46 million viewers for the night’s main event between Anderson Silva and James Irvin.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Dec 12, 2008 6:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

That show had a lot of promotion behind it and Anderson Silva. This one didn’t and had Kos.

by Rundownloser on Dec 12, 2008 6:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Kind of irrelevent. That was a major Saturday night show with a countdown special and a gigantic advertising push. This was a charity show with no stars. Seriously, I want to think you’re here to have good discussions, but this is getting ridiculously close to Baghdad Bob levels.

by Michael Rome on Dec 12, 2008 6:08 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL! I am just quoting MMAJunkie. I put the quote below. I did mention in the begginning of my post that the show did surprisingly good numbers for a show that had no stars. BUT, if you look at all Spike Rating numbers when showing the UFC or TUF, they all fall withing 1.0 – 2.0 range, so these ratings shouldn’t be a shock to anyone.

It was a nice showing for the UFC and Spike TV — and reportedly raised a staggering $4 million for the charitable drive — but fell far short of the mega-ratings past events have garnered.

As MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) previously reported, the two highest-rated events in UFC-Spike TV history are UFC 75 and “UFC Final Chapter: Ortiz vs. Shamrock III.” Each event peaked with approximately 5.9 million viewers. Additionally, UFC Fight Night 14, which took place earlier this year to counter Affliction Entertainment’s debut show, peaked with 4.46 million viewers for the night’s main event between Anderson Silva and James Irvin.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Dec 12, 2008 6:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

This actually shows the UFC brand power that it has more so than who was fighting on the card. I think you can stack a card on Spike with the Gurgels and Lebens of the UFC and it would do about the same ratings.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Dec 12, 2008 6:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The unmentioned and under the radar benefit of “fight for the troops”:

How much do you think Zuffa would have to pay all those celebrities to endorse the UFC?

Alot… and probably most wouldnt even do it.

The stealth strategy here was an indirect “endorsement” of the UFC by all these celebrities.

No, they didnt stand up and say “watch the UFC… it is a legitimate sport, I love it…” But what transpired was an “implied” endorsement – by all those celebrities – of the UFC.

About 10m plus in “endorsement” value for Zuffa.

by mmalogic on Dec 12, 2008 6:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Zuffa = Brilliant

You (for picking this up) = Brilliant

by Day Man on Dec 12, 2008 7:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m more and more impressed with Kos. He took Thiago the distance on short notice and completely disposed of Yoshida. He’d have had to take at LEAST some time off of training after all those leg kicks Thiago fed him. Call him what you want, but the guy doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone, he’s a straight up fighter.

by Dooda on Dec 12, 2008 6:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

ESPN will be getting in the MMA business

Numbers like this will lead to media investment into MMA. Think what ESPN pays for the rights to NBA games. They could spend a fraction of that and build a great competing promotion. Imagine how awesome it would be to have 24/7 MMA on ESPN?

" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "

by aaronb on Dec 12, 2008 7:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

A free live event that occurs about once every month beating a NBA game will not do it.

You can’t compare it directly unless you have weekly events consistently equaling or beating the NBA.

we’re not there yet… a weekly show will water down the ratings. At this point the only way a weekly event makes sense is to hype a ppv otherwise the math becomes tricky.

UFC is a different product for the networks than say NBA, MLB, and NFL.

This is why UFC works on PPV and those other sports wouldn’t.

People say the NFL is better or MLB is better than the UFC… those sports have way more fans and total viewers… yeah but would you pay 45 bucks to watch a football or baseball game?

The passion index for the UFC is very high and the numbers will continue to climb… wait 10 years – the sport is barely 15 years old.

where was boxing at 15? football? Basketball? Baseball? Taking inflation into account the UFC is kicken all their asses.

by mmalogic on Dec 12, 2008 7:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah...

as much as I’d like to personally see a “saturday night fights” type thing with live fights every weekend there is a point where you hit oversaturation. It’s the reason why Friday Night Fights on ESPN does such average ratings but when it’s been off the air for a few months and comes back the first couple weeks it has a ratings bump before going right back to the normal levels.

If they did any sort of weekly show it would make more sense on Spike where they just do 2 or 3 fights in an hour and leave it at that. The pressure wouldn’t be there to pull big ratings every single week and just the hardcore audience would probably be enough to keep Spike happy…not so much with ESPN though.

Regardless you are totally right that they are best avoiding any sort of watering down of the ratings through too much exposure. If they do any sort of “regular programming” it should just be a monthly fight night type thing.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 12, 2008 9:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs