UPDATE: MMA Fighting's Dave Meltzer is reporting that Dana White has confirmed the schedule change:

Dana White confirms Ultimate Fighter's move back to Wednesdays in 2013 (@davemeltzerwon) sbn.to/T2oLIw

— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) November 15, 2012

Last month, UFC president Dana White announced that UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones would coach The Ultimate Fighter 17 against former Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. Despite coming off a loss to Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, Sonnen managed to talk his way into a title shot at the higher weight class by creating a narrative that Jones ducked him as a replacement for UFC 151. Instead, Jones faced Vitor Belfort at UFC 152. Jones submitted Vitor in the fourth round, but not before being injured by an armbar attempt in the first.

Filming for TUF 17 started a couple weeks ago on October 29. Along with announcing the coaches, White also informed MMA fans that the show would be moved from it's awful Friday evening timeslot. The decision to air on Friday's has been widely criticized for the past two seasons of the series as one of the worst nights for television ratings. With the show picking up record low numbers this season, it seems they were finally convinced that it was a poor choice.

In an interview with The Fight Network, Jones' manager Malki Kawa revealed that the show has been moved to Wednesday night on FX. The transition to a mid-week night should go a long way in increasing viewership of the show as their key demographic will be more available. Additionally, the UFC is banking on the Sonnen/Jones rivalry to drive interest.

Kawa also had some interesting things to say about his other clients Carlos Condit and Ben Henderson.

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