(“I’LL ASK YOU ONE MORE TIME, JAY, WHO TATTOOED THIS AFFLICTION SHIRT TO YOUR BACK?!”)
If the first month is any indication, 2013 is going to be a good year for MMA. There hasn’t been a significant injury in weeks (sorry Patricky), title fights are almost starting to make sense, and on top of it all, the UFC’s primetime ratings are slowly beginning their climb out of the abyss. Throw in the fact that Bruce Buffer’s upcoming autobiography is all but a shoe-in for a Pulitzer and we are left with little to complain about. It feels…good.
So before we jinx ourselves, let’s get to the great news regarding the preliminary portion of UFC 156, which was able to pull in record numbers during its run on FX last Saturday despite the fact that it featured several debuting fighters and not a lot of name power. As MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer reports:
Saturday’s UFC 156 prelims drew 1,897,000 viewers, topping the previous UFC on FX record of 1,860,000 viewers set two weeks earlier for the Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping card from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The number was a huge increase from the prelims on FX on Jan. 26 before the FOX network special from Chicago’s United Center which did 1,208,000 viewers.
The largest previous audience on FX for prelims before a big show came on July 7 when theUFC 148 prelims did 1.8 million viewers. But that was to be expected, since there was more interest in UFC on that day with the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen middleweight title rematch than any day over the past two years.
After almost ten minutes of research, we have determined that there are only two real explanations for the UFC’s sudden viewership jump:
1) Americans were riding the violence-fueled high that only the anticipation of the Super Bowl can bring.
2) Jacob Volkmann‘s cult of survivalist troglodytes has gained a far greater following than we previously thought possible. This is probably the correct answer.
Unfortunately, not all is well in the land of UFC ratings…
Despite receiving Dana White’s hype-seal of approval and delivering one of the most violent knockouts in the history of The Ultimate Fighter, Tuesday’s episode of TUF 17 took a significant dip in ratings. Where episode two managed to reel in 1.27 million viewers and a 1.5 household rating, the third episode of the oft duplicated reality show only took in a .92 rating and 1.2 million viewers.
Granted, these numbers aren’t even in the same ballpark as the shameful lows last season brought, but it kind of makes you wonder how an episode that received so much more publicity failed to stir up the same amount of interest. Any ideas as to this drop in ratings, Taters?
Semi-related: The Fifteen Greatest Knockouts in TUF History.