TUF Formula - Effective but Improvable

Kevin Iole has a  piece on Yahoo! Sports speculating about the future of The Ultimate Fighter show.

Ratings ... have stagnated and while both Spike and UFC officials insist they’re pleased, they don’t mirror the UFC’s pay-per-view growth. Pay-per-view sales have skyrocketed since 2005, but the reality series hasn’t come close to matching the 1.67 household rating from Season 1 or the 1.77 from Season 3.

The show is, in essence, an infomercial for the pay-per-view fight between the coaches that will take place following the finale.

Beginning in Season 6, the ratings have gone 1.29, 1.20, 1.25 and 1.19. While that’s a solid figure and almost unheard of for a cable reality series in its ninth season, the numbers would suggest that some have had their fill of it.

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[T]he UFC and Spike have to find a way to reinvigorate the series to prevent it from becoming stale, if it already hasn’t.

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The show is, in essence, an infomercial for the pay-per-view fight between the coaches that will take place following the finale.

TUF has clearly been one of the pillars that has provided structural support to the UFC during its ascent in the past 4 years of the Zuffa era.

I think Iole is short-sighted when he says "The show is, in essence, an infomercial for the pay-per-view fight between the coaches that will take place following the finale."  Certainly TUF is that, but it's much more.  It provides constant weekly marketing for the UFC, a means to develop stars practically overnight, a vehicle for giving fans someone to root for or against (e.g. Junie Browning, Chris Leben, Diego Sanchez, Josh Koscheck), a sort of "minor-league" feeder system for fighters to break into the UFC, and a more accessible entrance path for all kinds of fighters to get onto Zuffa's radar - which is actually going to be increasingly, not less, important as MMA grows, the number of bright young prospects explodes, and international expansion means that fighters in Germany, the Phillipines, Korea, France, the UK, Australia, and elsewhere will want to get into the big leagues.

I do agree that the formula is somewhat stale, but there's an argument to be made for not making drastic changes.  As the article somewhat begrudgingly admits, TUF is still doing great ratings for a show with its longevity and its genre.  The formula is one that is proven to work and which I don't see suddenly failing - precisely because it's largely powered by the personalities of those that compete and by the UFC's/Spike's demonstrably solid ability to tell their stories and create an interest in their fate.

If I changed anything at all, I would leave the format almost as it is but have the fights be more Bellator style - either live or next-day on tape delay.  This will impart a more "fighting" feel and a less "TV" feel. 

Also, you could, as popularity continues to expand, conduct a few different TUF "seasons" in parallel and simultaneously, bringing them all together each week on the live fight night, where each fight on the card would be a showdown from one of the parallel "seasons".  Possibly each "season" could then produce its own winner and the TUF Finale would be even bigger than currently, with the different parallel seasons' champs fighting it out for the big prize.

Incidentally this would also be a way for the UFC to give a bit more to the fans while expanding their own fighter base slightly and allowing fighters to remain a bit more active than currently.