What makes 24/7 better than UFC Primetime?

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 3:34 AM EST

In no way am I saying UFC Primetime isn't good. It's an engaging program and a great step forward for the UFC and the sport in general.

But somehow I felt that it didn't seem as epic as 24/7. I just re-watched Pacquaio-De La Hoya 24/7 and it was amazing. Even though I knew that De La Hoya got pounded on by Pacquaio, just by watching 24/7 you feel so engaged with the fighters and their lives - much more so than Primetime.

I'm really not sure why. I have no idea why the atmosphere created by 24/7 is better than that of Primetime. It could be down to the fighters themselves, De La Hoya and Pacquiao have more 'interesting' stories than GSP and Penn do at this point in their careers. Pacquaio particularly because of the Philipines element (the whole country loves him and top Filipino government officials are on the show).

The music in Primetime is great...but somehow 24/7 seems even better.

Just can't put my finger on it. Any ideas?

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24/7 is uninterrupted...

the commercials on UFC Primetime really break up the flow.

by nitro on Jan 29, 2009 3:47 AM EST reply actions

After rewatching 24/7 I realized something – the narration on 24/7 is a lot better.

There’s a lot more of it and he describes the situation the fighters are in a lot more.

The narration flows really well and there isn’t actually that much interviewing going on. Primetime is really inundated with interviewing.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 4:11 AM EST reply actions

The UFC Primetime narration isn’t as good – and because the fighters and trainers are always talking we don’t really see them actually live their lives….

24/7 really demonstrates the lives of the fighters because the narrator does most of the talking and DLH etc just appear in the shots.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 4:13 AM EST reply actions

Thought this was way, way better than Oscar/Pacquaio.

The commercials are the big killer, and the narration is better on HBO. I was so bored watching Oscar and Manny though, they had no narrative and spread it over 4 hours.

by Michael Rome on Jan 29, 2009 4:42 AM EST reply actions

I hope most see it that way

For some reason – I don’t see it coming across to a casual fan nearly as epic as 24/7 does.

You can tell that 24/7 costs more to produce – they have a lot of outstanding shots that Primetime doesn’t capture.

And I’m pretty much as casual a boxing fan as you can find – I didn’t even watch DLH-Pacquiao.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 6:10 AM EST up reply actions

thats UUUUBER casual then. haha. :)

I watched the primetime show on the ufc website and it didnt have ads, but i still thought there was something missing.. Maybe its too much GSP for the first 2 episodes? (im watching the third now so im holding off the judgments till i finish)

http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/

by Anton Tabuena on Jan 29, 2009 6:25 AM EST up reply actions

the ufc 94 website is really good though.

http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/

by Anton Tabuena on Jan 29, 2009 6:26 AM EST up reply actions

Primetime

Can be watched on UFC.com un-interupted! I watched it again this morning with my brother and I thought it had great entertainment value.

Listening to “rude boy” say BJ Penn could smash Rashad Evans was pure comedy!

all you gotta do is...

by imapimp08 on Jan 29, 2009 11:21 AM EST up reply actions

i just finished watching the third episode. It looked better than the first two.. I liked most of the scenes, although its still too much GSP for my taste. (probably the bias though haha).. but the scene that kinda ruined the quality for me was the dinner scene where gsp was hugging his mom, then you see a boom mic above them.. its like, WTF cant you edit that out? ..They have lots and lots of artsy scenes, but they forget to edit out the boom mic. hahah.

But overall, i think its great. Im really hyped up for the fight and i guess they did their job well. Thats whats important right?

http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/

by Anton Tabuena on Jan 29, 2009 6:54 AM EST reply actions

You know what I think the problem was

I think the problem was that the show devolved into a giant TRASH TALKING SESSION and I think the producers kinda goaded it into that. Pacquiao and De La Hoya neither really engaged in trash talking about one another. Of course GSP and BJ have history ,but still 24/7 Pac vs Hoya was more about character building about the two individuals.

Plus, 24/7 was an hour long if i’m not mistaken. They could fit a lot more production into those ones. I mean the UFC had a one hour block. I guess they just didn’t have the budget to make a one hour show….

by evilstuntz on Jan 29, 2009 7:52 AM EST reply actions

I completely agree actually

There was so much trash talking. It wasn’t really about them or who they are – it was about ‘how they are gonna kick the other guys ass’.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 10:09 AM EST up reply actions

Production
Camera
Music
Narration
No commercials
The fact that I have HBOHD and not Spike HD…yet! >:(

All in all 24/7 is just more…..epic. Still I liked this Primetime better than the DLH/Pac 24/7

by xFenixKnightx on Jan 29, 2009 8:20 AM EST reply actions

Since this is the UFC’s freshman effort, how did it compare to the first 24/7?

by Jahbulon on Jan 29, 2009 10:00 AM EST reply actions

the first 24/7 was DLH-Mayweather

and that was probably the best of them all just because Mayweather is pretty good on TV.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 10:09 AM EST up reply actions

agreed

Before 24/7 I had ZERO interest in Mayweahter/DLH. After watching 24/7 both me and my g/f (who does not follow boxing at all) were totally sucked in.

Yeah, who got the final Death Blow? 'Cause I thought that Hawaiian guy had it comin' to him. - C. K.

by monkeyfightclub! on Jan 29, 2009 11:40 AM EST up reply actions

its the fact that 24/7is a lot longer without commercials. since primetime had commercials we really o go to see 45 to an hour total. and there is no wa y in that time you can get a good feel for there lives.

by jks9202 on Jan 29, 2009 10:07 AM EST reply actions

I thought primetime made GSP look like a stud and made BJ look like a total idiot. And I don’t think it was the editing..

by lbk on Jan 29, 2009 11:50 AM EST reply actions

Nothing because boxing sucks and you’d have to pay me $5 million to go :p

by Derek Suboticki on Jan 29, 2009 12:37 PM EST reply actions

No Dana White. :p

by FRANKIE on Jan 29, 2009 1:36 PM EST reply actions

no Dana

And Countdown made up convoluted bullshit drama. 24/7 just let’s shit happen.

Gimme 1 Round!

by skwirrl on Jan 29, 2009 1:56 PM EST reply actions

That is not really accurate. Remember the DLH/PBF fight. with Floyd’s dad and al that BS. I mean that was not entirely made up, but there was some drama added.

by szucconi on Jan 29, 2009 2:45 PM EST up reply actions

Yeh I agree with this

There was way too much unnecessary trash talking and drama creating in UFC Primetime. It just didn’t have the ‘classiness’ that 24/7 provided.

Even though Mayweather is about as classless character you can find – he still came across well. I think if Primetime focused on BJ and GSP as people – and tried to create less conflict – it would be better.

by rainmaker6 on Jan 29, 2009 6:58 PM EST up reply actions

Mayweather is GSP's work ethic combined with BJ's natural talents and attitude

So he’s a dick but you can still respect him cause he works so damn hard

Gimme 1 Round!

by skwirrl on Jan 29, 2009 9:10 PM EST up reply actions

what you can do in 30 minutes is very different than 23 minutes or so.

The prep time and planning for this show was limited.

The next one will be even better.

by mmalogic on Jan 29, 2009 7:25 PM EST reply actions

The ratings are in for episode 3 and they are lower than last week – little over 660,000 viewers. If the show portrayed Penn as a viable opponent it would have done better. People seen how “awesome” St. Pierre is and already made up their minds in episode 1.

I hope this is a lesson learned and they do it differently for Lesnar vs. Mir.

"My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions." --George W. Bush, The Decider, Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 3, 2007

by lovingmma25 on Jan 29, 2009 7:31 PM EST reply actions

This is kind of a classic fallacy where you take what you don’t like and blame it for the show not doing as well. It’s not a good trend, but the show also had very tough competition last night. Even a fan like me didn’t watch it live.

By the way, telling that episode 2 kept nearly all the viewers from episode 1, whereas there was a bigger dropoff between 2 and 3. Maybe cliffhangers do make sense for episodic television?

by Michael Rome on Jan 30, 2009 5:54 AM EST up reply actions

Totally unrelated.

Rome – I noticed over at FO in that whole debacle over “secret Zuffa shills” you said you’re in law school. Nice to see a fellow lawyer mma fan!!

As for Robert Joyner‘s comment, total cheap shot and clearly ignorant to the fact that in order to get legal jobs you apply to a million places looking for internships/articles. I’ve thought a few times about applying to UFC for a job on their counsel as well, as much as I hate “tv-Dana”, because really what a dream job that would be…but I think I’ll wait until I have a few more years associate experience and see where everything’s at then.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Jan 30, 2009 10:24 AM EST up reply actions