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The key word, in the above mentioned question, is success and how do the involved parties define success.

For CBS it is all about ratings.

Saturday Night Fights lost its time slot in overall viewers to ABC, FOX and NBC --not to mention CBS lost 2 million viewers from their normal Saturday night programing-- but CBS is more focused on a single demographic rather than overall viewers. After all, the principle reason why CBS took the perceived gamble on MMA was to generate younger viewers and Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers certainly delivered.CBS ending up winning the 18-34 and 18-49 male demos for Saturday night. Spike and Zuffa usually trumpet their success within these demographics so it is safe to assume that CBS and Strikeforce will also declare victory based upon these ratings alone.

Also, we still don't know what kind of numbers the Fedor-Rogers fight actually pulled as the fight began after 11:00pm ET. These numbers will be critical in determining the success of the limited promotional efforts of CBS and Strikeforce, which focused solely on Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers.

[Update: Note by Zak Woods, 11/10/09 2:55 PM EST ]

Fedor vs. Rogers drew 5.46 million viewers, raising the overall rating for the entire Strikeforce card to 4.042 million viewers.

During the broadcast the overall viewers jumped by 500,000 from 9:00pm to 10:00pm. If there was a similar spike for the Fedor-Rogers fight then Strikeforce's marquee bout would have done 4.5 million viewers (Editor's Note: big assumption but a spike is expected nonetheless). While not Kimbo numbers it would indicate a strong enough performance to perhaps warrant a greater investment in promotional efforts from both Strikeforce and CBS.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers

It is also worth noting that there will be a second metric of comparison for CBS and Strikeforce: the UFC's counter program, UFC Main Events. The ratings for Spike and Zuffa's counter program are still unknown. In the past Spike has generated 1.5-2 million viewers in these situations. However those counter programming efforts usually involve marquee pay-per view fightcards as oppose to a mash-up of recent fight cards. CBS could view Spike's numbers as a potential addendum to their bottom line. Then again it is safe to assume that Zuffa will continue their counter promotional efforts in the future.

Spike and Zuffa also have a free fight card coming this Saturday and both parties will be paying close attention to these numbers as they will have great effect on the future narrative.

The past two UFC U.K. events haven't delivered big time ratings. UFC 95 peeked at 3 million viewers and UFC 89 delivered 2.6 million viewers. While UFC 105 has Randy Couture there has not been a major promotional push for the event similar to what happened in the run-up to Saturday Night Fights.

It is quite possible that Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers can match or come close to matching UFC 105. If CBS and Strikeforce beat out Spike and Zuffa then Fedor vs. Rogers will instantly become a resounding success. Even if Zuffa wins, but the numbers are close, Strikeforce can still declare victory as the perceived expectation is that UFC 105 will out perform Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers.

Ultimately, the final verdict on Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers has yet to be written.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers