Officials from FX are denying an official decision that ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ (TUF) reality show will be moving to Wednesday in early 2013, and have gone as far as to say it not likely to happen that way.
The story of the move to Wednesday was first broken on The Fight Network, a Canadian television channel which covers boxing, MMA and pro wrestling. In an interview with Malki Kawa, the manager of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Kawa contended Wednesday would be the home of the upcoming season featuring Jones opposite Chael Sonnen. The season will begin airing on FX in January, and lead to a scheduled title fight between the two on April 27 in Newark, N.J. UFC President Dana White confirmed to MMAFighting.com the Wednesday move.
However, FX officials say not so fast.
“FX has not announced the official date or night that the next installment of TUF will air, however, it is highly unlikely it will air Wednesday nights,” wrote Dominic Pagone, the Vice President of Media Relations of FX in a message to MMAFighting.com. “The official announcement will be coming in the next two or three weeks.”
Before making the move to FX earlier this year, Ultimate Fighter had built up a steady audience that usually hovered between 1.2 million and 1.6 million viewers in a Wednesday night time 10 p.m. time slot on Spike TV. This current season, airing on Friday nights at 10 p.m. on the significantly higher rated FX, the show has ranged between 624,000 and 1.06 million viewers.