UFC 105 Ratings
by Zak Woods on Nov 18, 2009 4:36 PM EST
18 comments
MMA Payout is reporting UFC 105's ratings.
UFC 105 on Spike TV drew a 1.9 HH rating for an average 2.9 million viewers last Saturday night. The event also fared well in the M18-34 and M18-49 demographics with a 3.45 and 2.84, respectively.
The telecast's stellar M 18-34 rating and delivery (994,000 viewers) outperformed anything else on television, broadcast or cable on November 14, including heavy sports competition from college football. The telecast peaked at 3.7 million viewers during the main event, a light heavyweight bout between Couture, the UFC® Hall of Famer, and his opponent, Brandon "The Truth" Vera.
UFC 105 failed to beat CBS' Saturday Night Fights in average viewers (2.9 million vs. 4.04 million) viewers and main event viewers (3.7 million vs. 5.46 million).
While it woud be unexpected for a cable broadcast to outdraw a network broadcast, Dana White's recent contemptuous remarks make these results particularly ironic.
MMA Payout also has a breakdown of the ratings for certain demographic groups compared to Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers. Of course the extra demo breakdown was for groups that UFC 105 won.
UFC 105 drew an average audience akin to an episode of The Ultimate Fighter this season (behold the power of Kimbo Slice) and was smashed by two episodes of TUF, which drew 1.2 and 2.4 million more viewers.
UFC 105 also failed to break through the top 25 of cable rated programs for the week of November 8th-15th.
SBN coverage of UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera
[Update: Note by Zak Woods, 11/18/09 4:58 PM EST ]
Once again WKR has issues with MMA Junkie's headline for a UFC ratings story. The Junkie's headline is, "UFC 105 on Spike TV peaks with 3.7 million viewers, tops Strikeforce in young-male demos."
Why the second clause? Is that an important part of the story or is it propagating a pro-Zuffa narrative?
Why not say "Strikeforce beats UFC 105 by 1.7 million viewers." Or how about, "Kimbo Slice v.s Roy Nelson beats UFC 105"
Isn't the above clause just as factually true as "...[UFC 105] tops Strikeforce in young-male demos."
Why not write "Strikeforce tops UFC 105 in older demos."
Ultimately this is another example of how you frame a story, e.g., the title you give, affects the perception of truth.
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Filipino MMA fans would get hit the hardest.
=)
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 18, 2009 6:08 PM EST up reply actions
Thanks for posting some sensible numbers. The spin that Spike and MMAJunkie puts on them are ridiculous.
Also, the reach between CBS and Spike are pretty comparible. CBS reaches 115 million homes while Spike reaches 98 million homes. Difference is that Spike is heavily associated with the UFC while CBS is still trying to find its footing with MMA.
Yeah, BOO UFC, too powerful, ignore giant stats in their favor, BOO ZUFFA. BOOOO!!!!
YAY STRIKEFORCE AND THEIR KIDDIE POOL-SHALLOW divisions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but the stats for 105 vs. SF: Fedor vs. Rogers are not in their favor
watchkalibrun.com
by Zak Woods on Nov 18, 2009 5:45 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
LOL
Correct. Strikeforce getting good ratings for young and old demos, a more diversified rating pool, is much better in the long run. Spike as whole only gets young demos (who else would watch MANSwers), so it is fairly obvious that Strikeforce on CBS would beat the UFC in certain demos and Spike would beat CBS in young demos. One thing is for sure, the young demos group is and will continue to grow as they show more MMA on CBS/Showtime.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 18, 2009 5:59 PM EST up reply actions
You can’t have it both ways Sup, Strikeforce is on CBS because they want the young demo they touted those ratings as good even though they finished last overall on that Saturday.
Now you want to turn aroud and put down the great rating UFC 105 did in that young demo?, who’s really doing the spin here now Sup?.
I honestly don’t get the problem with the headline or news, it’s all about the young demo’s CBS basically along with the SF backer’s touted them as the big deal coming out of that show. Now when the UFC tops those ratings somehow people are zuffa schills because they tell the truth, that is really reaching hard here Zak.
this is all about goal posts and each organization, Spike/UFC CBS/SF, are trying to manipulate the media to get their narrative out.
Yes the male 18-34 demo is key, but MMA is quickly becoming labeled by advertisers as just an 18-34 male product.
Do I believe that the UFC’s constant chest thumping of their dominance within this demo is a good thing? Yes and no. In the short run they are able to claim a stranglehold on an economically lucrative group. But that cuts both ways as it makes the UFC a niche in the eyes of companies/advertisers. IMO that is a bad thing in the long run.
watchkalibrun.com
Also (sorry this is so disjointed) UFC 105 avg. the same audience as an episode of TUF 10 (#2, 4, 5, 6) while being outdrawn by two episodes (#1,3).
In my mind, a numbered event featuring Randy Couture (one of your biggest stars), a #1 WW contender bout, your biggest U.K. draw and two recent TUF winners only draws an avg audience of a TUF 10 episode, is the very definition of a disappointment.
That’s like the Bengals drawing an equal audience for the Steelers game as an episode of Hard knocks.
watchkalibrun.com
Except for the fact that either way the UFC wins with sponsors in the end, come on Zak now who’s the one cherry picking here?.
If the UFC’s biggest problem is being labeled a niche sport because they own the most sough after demo of all, including the one’s that got SF the CBS deal then they are doing great.
I’m all for having real debate on what the ratings mean, but let’s call out things when they need to be called out on both sides.
SF boasted about their great demo ratings even though they finished last in overall ratings for the night. I’ve seen no one call them out on that, but once the UFC comes out with ratings that top SF’s now everyone wants to accuse them of spin?. That is bs, if SF can boast about their demo victories a week ago then the UFC can do the same and shouldn’t be held to some crap double standard that’s all i’m saying.
If I understand you correctly you are saying that UFC 105 beats SF: Fedor vs. Rogers because they won the young male demos.
My argument is that is a narrow perception as it ignores total viewers, peak viewers, average viewers, past history of Fedor, e.g., being a questionable draw to increasing CBS’s ratings by 1.5 million, as well as past performance of the UFC brand namely their recent ratings performance for TUF.
watchkalibrun.com
UFC 105 failed to beat CBS’ Saturday Night Fights in average viewers (2.9 million vs. 4.04 million) viewers and main event viewers (3.7 million vs. 5.46 million).
I don’t know how much stock you could really put into this. You’re kind of boasting about a live show that beat a taped delay show. The people that tuned in to see Fedor and Rogers, might of tuned into see the local news. Now if the target demo increased in the overun, then it’s considered a home run for Strikeforce. And also, this event ran opposed against Pacquio vs Cotto.
by The Bronzeville Bully on Nov 18, 2009 11:58 PM EST up reply actions
My argument is that is a narrow perception as it ignores total viewers, peak viewers, average viewers, past history of Fedor, e.g., being a questionable draw to increasing CBS’s ratings by 1.5 million, as well as past performance of the UFC brand namely their recent ratings performance for TUF.
My point is that considering the fact that the ratings for SF in the young demo was what CBS was boasting about, the UFC using the same demo to crow about their big numbers is fair game.
You want to do a breakdown on all the numbers and what they mean please i’d love to see one. But to accuse Spike/The UFC or anyone else of cherrypicking an argument that was never questioned when SF and CBS did it is a crap double standard.
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