Dynamite!! 2008 Ratings Are in and They Are Not Good *UPDATED*
by Discman2 on Jan 2, 2009 10:38 AM EST
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PrintPromoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.
Nightmare of Battle is reporting that the television ratings from the year end FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 event are in and they are less than what was expected.
Dynamite!! Part 1 (19:00-21:00) 11.8%
Dynamite!! Part 2 (21:00-23:00) 12.9%
Dynamite!! Part 3 (23:00-23:24) 8.4%Compared to the last couple of years:
2007:
(18:00-20:30)- 11.1%
(20:30-23:00)- 14.7%
(23:00-23:34)- 11.1%2006:
(18:00-20:30)-16.3%
(20:30-23:05)-19.9%
(23:05-23:34)-10.1%
In a pre-event press conference FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa said they were aiming for 15% and over. The final part was the section that had the most amount of 'star' fighters that included Mirko vs. Choi, Mark Hunt, Shinya Aoki vs Eddie Alvarez, Gegard Mousasi and Sakuraba vs Tamura.
The second part had fights including the unbelievable Sapp vs. "Kinniku Mantaro", Seemy Schilt vs Mighty Mo, Hayato Sakurai, Kawajiri vs Kozo and Hari vs Overeem.
Based on how the talent was spread out one would assume that the third part of the event would have gotten higher ratings than the second part or at least an equal amount due to the inclusion of Sakuraba, Mirko and Aoki. Those are three big time names in Japan. Well Cro Cop may not be as big as he once was because he left for the States. Still though the part should have gotten better ratings. Maybe the freakshow fight is what the fans really wanted to see and they only stayed tune for that section.
The first part of the event was the Under 18 tournament and a few less than high caliber fights which include Andy Ologun vs Sakaguchi and Minowaman vs. Zimmerman. It's kinda a surprise that this part would score higher ratings than the 'main card' of the event but maybe thats due to the fact that people intitially tuned in and as the long night progressed they tuned out. Whatever the reason may be this is pretty bad news for FEG. Its a shame to see that no matter how many stars were packed into this Dynamite!! show they cold not live up to previous years shows.
*Update*
Apparently I assumed too much in thinking that TBS was airing the event in the order in which it happened live but that was not the case. According to Nightmare of Battle here is how the event broke down into when it was on television
Part 1: Minowaman, Andy, Koshien Semifinals, Kyshenko, Sakurai, Tokoro
Part 2: Alistair, Kawajiri, Sapp, Mirko, Koshien Final, Mousasi, Aoki, Sakuraba
Part 3: Manhoef, Schilt
This makes much more sense as the highest rated segment was the segment with Sakuraba, Tamura, Mirko and Aoki and the lowest rated segment didn't have the fan favorites or particularly good fights.
Also of note is how the show did comparatively against the other NYE shows that were on at the time and as someone had pointed out in the comments section the Dynamite!! show did very well against the competition.
TBS got the second/third best rating on NYE with Dynamite. Of course, NHK won with the song contest, but after that was Dynamite!! or the comedy show (which is really fun) on Nippon TV which got around the same ratings.
How the channel does versus other channels should be more important than the ratings number. So this isn’t a catastrophe in any way, especially considering KID and Masato didn’t participate. But it isn’t good either.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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It’s also sad because this show was pretty damn enjoyable. Good finishes and a lot of upsets.
Hopefully DREAM still gets to continue in the new year.
Hopefully they paid the under 18 in credit hours.
Did you know we are in high demand, Laura?
by Eugene Schelfaut on Jan 2, 2009 5:23 AM EST reply actions
I read elsewhere
That it occured in sparring or rolling right before the show and the doctors wouldn’t clear him. So it doesn’t sound horrible like it originally did.
Gimme 1 Round!
This may sound odd...
but I wonder how many households changed the channel after Sapp won. I mean…just thinking if a kid was excited to watch an anime character he loves fight and then watches him get pounded on by a giant of a man…he’s probably going to start crying and the parents are going to find something else to watch.
Not that I think it would cause that 4% dip or anything…but maybe a small part of it.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 2, 2009 10:06 AM EST reply actions
Like...
back when I was a kid…if Hulk Hogan happened to lose (of course by underhanded tactics…no man could take out the Hulkster through fair means) I was changing the channel right away.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 2, 2009 11:16 AM EST up reply actions
I doubt it..
but I like to think that it is something as cool as broken hearted kids refusing to continue watching the show.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 2, 2009 5:05 PM EST up reply actions
I know what you mean
I think the Hulkster, (in his prime of course when he had MILLIONS of HULKAMANIACS RUNNING WILD!), definately could have taken Fedor. Fedor would have been no match for the atomic leg drop.
Gimme 1 Round!
for SURE
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 3, 2009 10:01 AM EST up reply actions
I wonder how much having fedor on the card would have helped???
I love Dream, but they certainly are missing some of the flavor and mystique that Pride possessed. Fedor, Wanderlei, Shogun on and on. I may be off here, but I think this has as much to do with their ratings/popularity as anything.
Eliot Marshall: Bader won. Like I said in the episode, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's my job to be able to deal with when somebody's doing that. It's not his job to change up his tactics.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
That's true...
Nog had such an “unbeatable aura” until the Fedor fight.
Wanderlei had the same thing…so did Fedor…then Shogun had it after the GP win.
In DREAM there is a sense of “anyone can beat anyone anytime” which is fun…but it does lack a bit of that mystique.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 2, 2009 11:27 AM EST up reply actions
Calm down
its not that bad as people are making it the boxing match before hand with Sakata a japan favorite in Japan which was also on TBS only drew a 9.0% the Hustle Mania wrestling shich is huge was on TV Tokyo and drew a pathetic 3.4% rating. So its not as bad as people are making it sound it was about average. TBS drew the best for that time slot.
Good...
I hate HUSTLE ;)
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 2, 2009 1:13 PM EST up reply actions
Thanks for the context, I wasn’t aware it won its timeslot. The dropoff at the end of the show certainly wasn’t a good thing, and I think it speaks to how uninteresting the Sakuraba vs. Tamura main event was, and how far Saku’s star has fallen, but there are some other factors I think people are missing, such as:
-The competitive nature of NYE TV in Japan. Half of the country tunes into that concert/competition thing for hours; perhaps they don’t feel like watching massively long programs back to back on the same day.
-The decline in TV audiences in general. Like North America, younger people are watching less TV and spending more time online, playing videogames etc.
So while these numbers are disappointing in the respect that the positive momentum from the K-1 Final didn’t carry over from FUJI TV to TBS, the first two parts of the show were essentially in line with realistic expectations. This is hardly the death knell that you know some people will make it out to be.
-The concert has been going on for years, why would it affect their ratings now?
-There isn’t a huge decline in tv audiences in the US there has been a huge decline in network tv audiences. Instead of 4 or 5 channels there are hundreds offering compelling first run entertainment now and that has caused the network decline in the US. That isn’t much of an issue for Japanese NYE shows because these are supposed to be event shows not just another thing on tv.
These numbers could very well be attributed to the stars that were missing from the show(and the ones that are fading) or that pro wrestling ratings are also in decline or that the Japanese are fad obsessed and may of moved on to the next fad but this is a pretty steep drop in the last two years and that will get the networks concerned regardless of the reasons. I don’t think they are going anywhere but it could have a real effect on when/if things get shown and how much money they have to spend on future events. Heck it could work out ok for us in the states because they may push more content on HDnet for added extra income.
TBS drew the best rating, it was overall a low year.
But here’s a side point for most of us watching.. oh yeah, smoogy, where the hell were you? You fell asleep yet Wand showed up. Ugh… anyways…
The whole Youth GP was the most boring display of K-1 ever. I mean, they can’t really KO each other due to their age and size at this point, so why even do those kinds of GP’s for NYE events? Cut it.
Tamura vs. Sakuraba was awful, I don’t care how hardcore of a Japanese MMA fan you are or how interested you are in Sakuraba in Japan. It was boring as hell.
Honestly, most of these bouts had no WOW factor at all. HMC had already been demolished by plenty of fighters, and he’s just not an attraction anymore. Sapp, hate to say it, but he’s done as well. He won, but I can think of plenty of people who would KO him. In fact, put Manhoef up against him next year, and then after he KO’s Sapp in 10 seconds, let him fight someone else.
It’s just getting awful. I wasn’t impressed with this year’s matchups. Aoki vs. Alvarez was good, but Aoki is just on another level grappling. JZ vs. Hansen was the most intriguing to me, and it was cancelled.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
I actually had a great time watching it, but then again I wasn’t there live at 7AM. I got the XTM rips, which had all the intros and actually cut the whole Koshien tournament. So that was pretty sweet.
I think the mistake FEG made was stacking the end of the card with matchups that were intriguing more to hardcore fans than the everyday Joe. CroCop clearly has lost his heat; Aoki is a name among DREAM fighters, but hardly a star, and everybody knows that Sakuraba is backsliding into retirement. If the crowd reaction and ratings indicate much, it seems that Badr Hari was one of the big attractions this year, so hopefully his heat will transfer to Overeem.
I was up at 5 AM EST, but we had massive problems with spoiler bastards viewing the XTM stream. Other than Hari vs. Overeem getting spoiled, good times were had by all.
I just think Japanese MMA in general is losing heat. Guys like Yamamoto are the big draws because thousands of little girls want to jump all over him like a god damn Axe commercial. Aoki isn’t there, and Hari will always have heat as a bad boy. The big problem is that other than maybe Hari/Overeem, what fights were actually draws? Most fans over there are past the whole Sapp and HMC hype.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Jan 2, 2009 4:12 PM EST up reply actions
Kid is massive over there...
I mean, he’s in Teen Beat all the time with millions of little Japanese girls screaming their heads off like it’s the 90’s and Nsync is performing.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Jan 2, 2009 4:56 PM EST up reply actions
i guess even the japanese fans are tired of seeing freakshow, giants and men dressed as anime characters fighting. where are all the old school japanese mma fans claiming how the NYE event is like our Superbowl.
Its good to hear that at least TBS got the highest ratings out of all the stations that night, although no one really sourced to the info. I dont think these low ratings are any sort of sign of oncoming doom its just that they did bad numbers. end of story. But comparatively they did well against the other stations so thats got to count for something.
The biggest surprise is the lack of interest on the final part of the show. Thats a pretty big drop in viewers from part 2 to part 3. And part 3 had Sakuraba… Kinda makes you feel bd because Sakuraba isn’rt what he used to be as a fighter and as a draw.
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