The coming season, featuring Michael Bisping and Jason Mayhem Miller, premieres on September 21, 2011 on SPIKEtv. The television contest reality show will be the first to focus on bantamweight and featherweight fighters. Dana, Bisping and Miller have all said via Twitter and during interviews that this season is by far the best one yet. Hype or not, I’m pumped to see the two-hour long elimination episode. So many fights in so little time.
The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC’s reality series advertising tool and development league, is a stroke of genius. It is a brand within a brand. Seriously, I wrote a term paper on this. This past season seemed to lag on the ratings. Dana White claims this was do to the lack of an elimination round which was the result of SPIKEtv cutting back on the number of episodes they were able to air. With the coming 14th season of TUF on film and fast approaching, I think it’s appropriate to see what changes they should have made. Learning from past seasons, some slight format changes and creativity with coaches could allow for TUF to reboot itself.