(Taffer my good man, you finally have some competition.)
In its seven-season history, Bellator’s events have bounced from Friday nights to Thursdays, to Saturdays, and back to Fridays again. That, coupled with the promotion’s changes in cable partners (anybody remember the ESPN Deportes days?) and its traveling-circus approach to event scheduling, may have worked against the organization gaining a foothold in the market over the years.
Luckily, Bellator’s impending Spike TV deal will give its events a sharp boost in exposure — and they’ll no longer be shown on a night that translates into guaranteed death for viewership numbers. MMAJunkie is reporting that Bellator’s first event of the Spike era is slated for Thursday, January 10th, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As Junkie wrote, the event will serve as Bellator 85, and will air on Spike TV following TNA Impact Wrestling.
Switching to Thursday nights can only be a good thing for Bellator, which has averaged just 168,700 viewers per broadcast this season on MTV2. Coincidentally, the UFC may be moving their own Friday-night cable show — The Ultimate Fighter — to a different night as well. Although Jon Jones’s manager Malki Kawa and UFC president Dana White both claimed recently that TUF was moving back to Wednesdays, FX’s Vice President of Media Relations told MMAFighting that such a move was “highly unlikely,” adding: “FX has not announced the official date or night that the next installment of TUF will air…The official announcement will be coming in the next two or three weeks.”
Update: The story just took a weird turn — now an unnamed Spike TV exec is saying that Bellator’s Thursday-night move isn’t official yet: “We are still deciding a few options, still looking at staying on Fridays or moving to the old TUF slot on Wednesdays.” Basically, the cable networks are playing a game of scheduling chicken. MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer explains after the jump…
(Taffer my good man, you finally have some competition.)
In its seven-season history, Bellator’s events have bounced from Friday nights to Thursdays, to Saturdays, and back to Fridays again. That, coupled with the promotion’s changes in cable partners (anybody remember the ESPN Deportes days?) and its traveling-circus approach to event scheduling, may have worked against the organization gaining a foothold in the market over the years.
Luckily, Bellator’s impending Spike TV deal will give its events a sharp boost in exposure — and they’ll no longer be shown on a night that translates into guaranteed death for viewership numbers. MMAJunkie is reporting that Bellator’s first event of the Spike era is slated for Thursday, January 10th, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As Junkie wrote, the event will serve as Bellator 85, and will air on Spike TV following TNA Impact Wrestling.
Switching to Thursday nights can only be a good thing for Bellator, which has averaged just 168,700 viewers per broadcast this season on MTV2. Coincidentally, the UFC may be moving their own Friday-night cable show — The Ultimate Fighter — to a different night as well. Although Jon Jones’s manager Malki Kawa and UFC president Dana White both claimed recently that TUF was moving back to Wednesdays, FX’s Vice President of Media Relations told MMAFighting that such a move was “highly unlikely,” adding: “FX has not announced the official date or night that the next installment of TUF will air…The official announcement will be coming in the next two or three weeks.”
Update: The story just took a weird turn — now an unnamed Spike TV exec is saying that Bellator’s Thursday-night move isn’t official yet: “We are still deciding a few options, still looking at staying on Fridays or moving to the old TUF slot on Wednesdays.” Basically, the cable networks are playing a game of scheduling chicken. MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer explains after the jump…
The game going on is that neither FX nor Spike want to be the one to officially announce what night their MMA programming will be airing starting in January. Both figure it is more effective to be the counter puncher. Most likely, Spike wants to air Bellator on a night without UFC competition programming. FX hasn’t directly said so, but there have been indications they are looking at airing MMA programming head-to-head with Spike. It’s a retribution game since Spike put on old UFC programming head-to-head with key FX and FOX events this past year when Spike had the rights to air UFC footage from its MMA library. The feeling from the FX side is that Spike confused the marketplace and somewhat hurt the debut of the new The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season earlier this year…
Professional wrestling is one of the Spike’s highest-rated shows and theoretically would be the strongest potential lead-in programming for MMA. Spike put UFC on the map in 2005 by airing the show immediately after WWE’s Monday Night Raw, a popular pro wrestling show. Impact is not in the same ballpark as Raw when it comes to ratings, though, averaging 1.24 million viewers on average over the past four weeks…
If one wants to avoid the NFL juggernaut in the fall, the strongest options are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. However, FX has its hottest show, “Sons of Anarchy,” on Tuesdays. Both companies are currently running on Fridays, doing lower ratings than either has done in the past.
There is no NFL on Saturdays in fall most weeks, although there is college football. Bellator was previously having to compete against both UFC pay-per-views and major live events most Saturdays last fall as well as HBO Boxing. However, ratings declined with the move to Friday.
(Let’s just say that their Chat Roulette session with fans quickly took a turn for the worse.)
When it was first announced that Jon Jones would be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Chael Sonnen, then beating him into dust defending his light heavyweight strap against him at the season’s end, the general public reaction seemed to be that of bewilderment. Even those who were quick to defend the pairing didn’t have the cojones to claim that Sonnen had earned a title shot (because how could you), but rather that he stepped up when no one else would and it would make for great television so we should just all STFU. We have officially entered the Rollerballphase of the UFC, people. And although Sonnen made sure to break out the WWE trash-talk in the days following the announcement, if you are expecting all-out verbal warfare on next season’s TUF, you might want to start preparing yourself for disappointment.
Last night, Dana White, Jones, and Sonnen sat down for a 40 minute video chat with fans to answer questions about ranging from the upcoming season of the reality show to what Dana White thinks of Fedor, which was apparently asked by a fan who had been living underground for the past 3 years. After Dana was done berating anyone who had the gall to ask him anything other than how he would describe his perfect Sunday, he called in an uncharacteristically laid back and terrorist beard-free Jones, who was immediately asked how he viewed Sonnen now that the show had begun shooting. His response was surprising to say the least.
Full story and video after the jump.
(Let’s just say that their Chat Roulette session with fans quickly took a turn for the worse.)
When it was first announced that Jon Jones would be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Chael Sonnen, then beating him into dust defending his light heavyweight strap against him at the season’s end, the general public reaction seemed to be that of bewilderment. Even those who were quick to defend the pairing didn’t have the cojones to claim that Sonnen had earned a title shot (because how could you), but rather that he stepped up when no one else would and it would make for great television so we should just all STFU. We have officially entered the Rollerballphase of the UFC, people. And although Sonnen made sure to break out the WWE trash-talk in the days following the announcement, if you are expecting all-out verbal warfare on next season’s TUF, you might want to start preparing yourself for disappointment.
Last night, Dana White, Jones, and Sonnen sat down for a 40 minute video chat with fans to answer questions about ranging from the upcoming season of the reality show to what Dana White thinks of Fedor, which was apparently asked by a fan who had been living underground for the past 3 years. After Dana was done berating anyone who had the gall to ask him anything other than how he would describe his perfect Sunday, he called in an uncharacteristically laid back and terrorist beard-free Jones, who was immediately asked how he viewed Sonnen now that the show had begun shooting. His response was surprising to say the least.
Full story and video after the jump.
From the mouth of the champ:
[Chael’s] actually, he’s not too bad. I thought it was going to be all trash-talk, but he’s actually being pretty decent and pretty classy. So, I think it’s going to make for a great show.
I actually don’t hate Chael anymore. He’s actually turning out to be OK. I’m not sure if he’s setting me up to really hate him (Dana nods “yes”) but right now, he’s being a pretty decent human.
So you mean to tell me that not only are Bones and DW back to chummy-old-pal status, but so are Bones and Sonnen for the time being?
*Removing episodes 1 and 2 of TUF 17 from my DVR….NOW*
And indeed, once Sonnen enters the room around the 29 minute mark, the two start horsing around and shooting the shit like old high school buddies who bumped into each other at the airport bar. Chael even admits that he thinks Jon is a “pretty nice guy” and jokes with the champ about how delicious the “Jon Jones Special” pizza is at his pizzeria.
We can already hear the peeeewww noise of the TUF 17 ratings making their descent back to earth. You better have some tricks up your massive sleeves, Chael.
TUF 17 coachesJon Jones and Chael Sonnen, along with UFC president Dana White and FX exec Chuck Saftler, hosted a media conference call yesterday in which they promoted the upcoming season and fielded questions from baffled reporters. It was a lively affair, marked by an unusually aggressive Jon Jones — Chael tends to bring that out of people — and some interesting revelations about the future of The Ultimate Fighter. Here are some highlights…
FX is moving TUF off Friday nights, and preparing for a war with Spike: “The show is going to move off of Friday nights,” Saftler said. “I can’t confirm the day right now, but it’s definitely moving off of Friday, it’s definitely moving to a weekday. There will be an announcement on that somewhere in the next 30 to 45 days. But I will say that Spike should watch their ass. Spike clearly has been dogging us for most of this year…by trying to create viewer confusion and scheduling old episodes against ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and trying to pass them off as new content. They’ll be off of the UFC game effective in January. They’re going to try to launch a new product, there’s going to try to launch their own reality show that competes with ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ or does a very similar thing with their Bellator product. We watched how they behaved, and we’re well aware of their behavior and how they’ve acted competitively…I’m not ready to commit to (scheduling TUF directly against the Bellator show on Spike), but we’re certainly going to be watching how they schedule, what they schedule and where they schedule.”
Jones vs. Sonnen “made sense,” according to Dana White: “Basically, we got the word when Jon went out and got his elbow checked, that he was out and couldn’t come back until April,” White explained. “So it made sense* for him to do The Ultimate Fighter. Why block up [the division]? Machida can fight. Dan Henderson can fight. Gustafsson and Shogun are going to fight in December. Everything will keep right on moving…These guys will both coach The Ultimate Fighter. They’ll fight when the season’s over, and then whoever’s next in line at 205 pounds can fight Jon Jones** next for the title.”
TUF 17 coachesJon Jones and Chael Sonnen, along with UFC president Dana White and FX exec Chuck Saftler, hosted a media conference call yesterday in which they promoted the upcoming season and fielded questions from baffled reporters. It was a lively affair, marked by an unusually aggressive Jon Jones — Chael tends to bring that out of people — and some interesting revelations about the future of The Ultimate Fighter. Here are some highlights…
FX is moving TUF off Friday nights, and preparing for a war with Spike: “The show is going to move off of Friday nights,” Saftler said. “I can’t confirm the day right now, but it’s definitely moving off of Friday, it’s definitely moving to a weekday. There will be an announcement on that somewhere in the next 30 to 45 days. But I will say that Spike should watch their ass. Spike clearly has been dogging us for most of this year…by trying to create viewer confusion and scheduling old episodes against ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and trying to pass them off as new content. They’ll be off of the UFC game effective in January. They’re going to try to launch a new product, there’s going to try to launch their own reality show that competes with ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ or does a very similar thing with their Bellator product. We watched how they behaved, and we’re well aware of their behavior and how they’ve acted competitively…I’m not ready to commit to (scheduling TUF directly against the Bellator show on Spike), but we’re certainly going to be watching how they schedule, what they schedule and where they schedule.”
Jones vs. Sonnen “made sense,” according to Dana White: “Basically, we got the word when Jon went out and got his elbow checked, that he was out and couldn’t come back until April,” White explained. “So it made sense* for him to do The Ultimate Fighter. Why block up [the division]? Machida can fight. Dan Henderson can fight. Gustafsson and Shogun are going to fight in December. Everything will keep right on moving…These guys will both coach The Ultimate Fighter. They’ll fight when the season’s over, and then whoever’s next in line at 205 pounds can fight Jon Jones** next for the title.”
Jonny Bones twists the knife: “Chael’s an interesting guy,” said Jones. “I respect some things about him, like the way he goes out there and gets what he wants, everything except for a world championship or any championships. So he’s a good talker, he’s definitely good for the sport in some ways, and he’s extremely disrespectful and not much of a championship level athlete at all, but he has his qualities, and most of his qualities are gonna come to light when he retires and when he’s able to do his TV shows and commentating and things like that. But right now I feel as if I’m doing a lot of people in the sport a favor and I’m doing Chael a favor by showing him what his true calling is, and that’s using that gift of gab, not athletic talent.”
“[Agreeing to fight Sonnen] really just had to do with getting over this chapter in my career. I’m trying to move forward and do a lot of amazing things, and the UFC 151 cancellation was a tough moment in my career, and I think beating Chael Sonnen and after that beating Dan Henderson will help me have closure to that whole situation.
Just two months ago I had the whole world calling me a sissy and a wuss and saying that I’m afraid of Chael Sonnen, and even my own fans in my hometown questioned why I wouldn’t fight him. And it seems like a lot of people have jumped on this train of Chael not deserving a title shot, but they jumped on that train a little too late. I think I’m over the fact of whether he deserves it or not, and I’m getting more realistic with the fact that the fans really want it. And without the fans, who are any of us?”
“I absolutely know I can beat Chael, and I’m really confident going into this fight based on my skill set, my youth, my versatility, and that I’m a championship fighter,” Jones said. “I don’t think Chael’s really a guy who knows how to win championships. And with that being said, I believe in every way, shape, and form that I’ll beat Chael.”
Chael Sonnen on that tricky concept of “deserving” a title shot: “Welcome to life,” Sonnen said. “We don’t deserve things, we get what we get. And let’s understand, not one of those fighters said ‘Hey Dana, I’ll fight Chael. Let me prove that I’m the number one contender, let me fight that guy.’ Not one of them. They all sat there and said their little things, so I’ve called every one of those bastards out and I’ll call them out right now. And I’ve got no problem getting a tune up fight and slapping any one of these guys around, including the Karate Kid [Machida]. So not only do they not want to carry the heavy water and fight me, they don’t want to fight Jon Jones. Not one of them called out Jon. The only fighter to call Jones out is me. Nobody called me out.
I don’t turn down fights and I never get hurt. I will fight anybody at anytime. So these guys can say all these things they want, but not one of them has stepped up. I gotta deal with this all the time, where guys always get jealous or envious of an opportunity, but they never want to walk out to the mound and point to the crowd and tell them where they’re gonna hit the ball. I will. I’ll call my shots. And as far as talking my way into it, what do I care about that? So what I talked my way into it? I wanted it and I got it. I talked a cat out of a tree earlier today. Good for me, and chalk one more up for the bad guy.”
“Look, [Jones] needs me, he hasn’t beat anybody until he beats me. He beat (Ryan) Bader, he beat Shogun, he beat — who’s that glorified Hollywood extra — Rampage (Jackson), he beat Vitor. What’s next, he’s gonna fight Scott Ferrozzo? [Ed. note: LOL!] Listen, he needs me, and I am the man, and I’m the man because I say I’m the man, and if anybody else wants the spot, come say it and come take it from me.”
And finally, a friendly disagreement over hormone therapy: “First off, I’ve been on both sides of an ass-whooping, and that’s something that Jon hasn’t,” Sonnen said. “Jon’s been very dominant, but he’s also fought a lot of guys who’re timid and they’re afraid to get into a fight. I’m going to walk out there and I’m going to get into a fist fight. And above everything, I’m in a lot better shape than Jon or anybody else he’s fought. As much as I’ll admit, Jon is better — skill for skill he’s fantastic — Jon will admit, I’m in better shape than anybody he’s fought.”
“In good shape on TRT, or off TRT?” Jones replied.
“On TRT, Jon. You tell everybody, you let the media know…Eh, let’s move on.”
“I think it’s terrible,” Jones said later, shifting focus back to the TRT discussion. “I think it’s professionally terrible if your going to consider yourself an athlete. I mean, TRT would be perfect for Chael Sonnen if he wasn’t competing in one of the toughest sports in the world. I think Chael Sonnen made tons of money when he was a young guy, and now he’s an older guy. Now just to be able to take a drug and super-enhance yourself back to where you were in your twenties is bull. Right now I’m 25. I’m sure I’m not as giddy and happy-go-lucky as I was when I was 20, so if I take a drug at my 25-year-old age and have the energy of a 20-year-old, it just wouldn’t be fair. Everyone would hate me if I did it. But Chael Sonnen gets to do it? I think it’s bullcrap.”
“I don’t have any comment on the topic,” Sonnen said.
////////////////////////
* Speaking of fights that make sense, here’s Dana White in August, talking about Nick Diaz wanting to go up in weight and fight Anderson Silva: “Nick Diaz makes no sense. I know that it sounds fun ‘YEAH! Throw Nick Diaz in there!’ But if you really look at the thing, Nick Diaz just lost to Condit. You know what I mean? … at 170 so that gives him the opportunity to move up to 185 and fight the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world? In what f*cking universe does that make sense?” A few weeks later, Dana adamantly stated that Sonnen wouldn’t be able to just talk his way into a 205-pound title shot. But hey, can’t a guy change his mind?
** Or Chael Sonnen, right? Jesus, even the fight’s promoter can’t be bothered to give him a chance in this one.
(This fan-made hype video was first posted to YouTube on September 30th. Wow. CletusDamVan must have read The Secret.)
Ugh, you guys, I had the worst dream last night. I was at home, but it was actually the house I grew up in, you know? I was watching TV, and suddenly all the lights went out. Dana White walked in through the back door. He told me — and here’s the freaky part — that Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen would be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, and they’d actually be fighting for the light-heavyweight belt in April. I was like, “Why? Why are you doing this?” And he said, “Because I fucking hate you.” And when he said that, I realized it wasn’t Dana White, it was my own father. Then, my teeth started cracking and falling out one by one, and-OH MY GOD NO! AHHHHHHHH! THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! [scene]
Look, we’re not alone in our utter distaste for this booking. Elsewhere on the Internet, pundits have called Jones vs. Sonnen (vs. TUF) a thinly-veiled money grab that reeks of desperation and sets a horrible precedent. But this matchup is now our reality, and we have to deal with reality on reality’s terms. Here’s a sample of the fallout and news updates that yesterday’s bombshell kicked up:
– Tweet of the Day, from Dan Henderson: “I guess I should just quit training to win fights and to be exciting for the fans and just go to shit talking school. @danawhite”. Dan and Chael might be bros from way back, but that clearly doesn’t make this news any easier for Hendo to swallow. It’s insulting, really. Henderson is still the most rightful challenger to Jones’s belt, but an ill-timed injury has apparently put him on the UFC’s “pay no mind” list. Don’t make us say it.
– More sour grapes: Of course, Sonnen’s new opportunity now leaves Forrest Griffin without an opponent; FoGriff was originally supposed to meet Sonnen at UFC 155 in December. As you can imagine, Griffin doesn’t seem too thrilled about this latest development either, telling Ariel Helwani, “I’m not mad at him. Why fight your way to the top when you can talk your way to the top? I’m actually happy I’m not fighting him anymore, because watching his fights was boring and tedious.” The hot new rumor is that Griffin could possibly face the recently-wreckedStephan Bonnar instead. Fine, whatever.
– And now, the Chael Sonnen reaction video you’ve all been waiting for/dreading…
(This fan-made hype video was first posted to YouTube on September 30th. Wow. CletusDamVan must have read The Secret.)
Ugh, you guys, I had the worst dream last night. I was at home, but it was actually the house I grew up in, you know? I was watching TV, and suddenly all the lights went out. Dana White walked in through the back door. He told me — and here’s the freaky part — that Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen would be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, and they’d actually be fighting for the light-heavyweight belt in April. I was like, “Why? Why are you doing this?” And he said, “Because I fucking hate you.” And when he said that, I realized it wasn’t Dana White, it was my own father. Then, my teeth started cracking and falling out one by one, and-OH MY GOD NO! AHHHHHHHH! THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! [scene]
Look, we’re not alone in our utter distaste for this booking. Elsewhere on the Internet, pundits have called Jones vs. Sonnen (vs. TUF) a thinly-veiled money grab that reeks of desperation and sets a horrible precedent. But this matchup is now our reality, and we have to deal with reality on reality’s terms. Here’s a sample of the fallout and news updates that yesterday’s bombshell kicked up:
– Tweet of the Day, from Dan Henderson: “I guess I should just quit training to win fights and to be exciting for the fans and just go to shit talking school. @danawhite”. Dan and Chael might be bros from way back, but that clearly doesn’t make this news any easier for Hendo to swallow. It’s insulting, really. Henderson is still the most rightful challenger to Jones’s belt, but an ill-timed injury has apparently put him on the UFC’s “pay no mind” list. Don’t make us say it.
– More sour grapes: Of course, Sonnen’s new opportunity now leaves Forrest Griffin without an opponent; FoGriff was originally supposed to meet Sonnen at UFC 155 in December. As you can imagine, Griffin doesn’t seem too thrilled about this latest development either, telling Ariel Helwani, “I’m not mad at him. Why fight your way to the top when you can talk your way to the top? I’m actually happy I’m not fighting him anymore, because watching his fights was boring and tedious.” The hot new rumor is that Griffin could possibly face the recently-wreckedStephan Bonnar instead. Fine, whatever.
– And now, the Chael Sonnen reaction video you’ve all been waiting for/dreading…
“This show has some tremendous young talent on it. I will be taking 50 percent of that talent and teaching them how to fight. The other half is going to be taught how to be selfish, entitled brats by Jones. The good news is that when it is all over, I’m sure Coach Jones will throw a hell of an afterparty…I did everything I could to warn this guy. [I told him] ‘Hey Jon, I’m coming to the division which puts you on notice to pack your bags and get put of there.’ He was talking about going to heavyweight and he should have done it. The bottom line is, he waited too long and now the man has arrived…I got the biggest arm, I got the greatest charm, and I do the most harm. I’m better than Jon Jones, I’m better than Sean Combs, and I’m even better than John Holmes.”
– The injury angle: So why is Jon Jones — a guy who was previously known for his fight frequency — now content to be sidelined until April 27th in order to play the straight man on a flailing reality show? Blame Vitor Belfort’s “nearacle” armbar, which caused a strained elbow ligament in Jones’s right arm that will require him to undergo physical therapy to rehab it. In other words, Jones wasn’t going to jump directly back in the cage anyway. When you consider that fact, the decision begins to make a lot more sense from the champ’s perspective: Keep yourself in the public’s eye through TUF, then take a squash match against a natural middleweight as your post-injury tune-up fight.
– Discussion topic #1: Will Jones and Sonnen both make it to their April 27th fight date intact, or will one be struck down by the TUF Coaches Curse?
– Discussion topic #2: “Lesnar couldn’t move the needle for TUF on Spike and some of you think Sonnen will do it on FX. Some of you don’t get reality.”
(Let this be a lesson to all you up-and-coming fighters out there: Wearing a fake belt and talking trash on Twitter will do more for your career than legitimate wins ever will.)
What the fucking fuck, you guys.
Look, we know that we’ve been all over The Ultimate Fighter’s ass lately, citing such complaints as their tired formula, lackluster fighters/fights, and steadily declining viewership. We also remember that when Chael Sonnen stepped in to face Jon Jones on a week’s notice, we were all for it. But when Dana White announced to the LA Times some minutes ago that Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones had been booked as opposing coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, with a title fight set for April 27th, our reaction was that of horror and revulsion.
This is madness, pure and simple. Let’s look past the fact that Chael Sonnen has not fought at light heavyweight since his UFC debut way back at UFC 55, or the fact that he was supposed to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 155, or that he is just coming off a loss to Anderson Silva, or that there is at least one legitimate contender in line before him, or that Dana White just got through telling us that the winner of Shogun/Gustafsson would likely receive the next title shot. Actually, we can’t look past any of that. In no alternate universe does this matchup make sense.
(Let this be a lesson to all you up-and-coming fighters out there: Wearing a fake belt and talking trash on Twitter will do more for your career than legitimate wins ever will.)
What the fucking fuck, you guys.
Look, we know that we’ve been all over The Ultimate Fighter’s ass lately, citing such complaints as their tired formula, lackluster fighters/fights, and steadily declining viewership. We also remember that when Chael Sonnen stepped in to face Jon Jones on a week’s notice, we were all for it. But when Dana White announced to the LA Times some minutes ago that Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones had been booked as opposing coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, with a title fight set for April 27th, our reaction was that of horror and revulsion.
This is madness, pure and simple. Let’s look past the fact that Chael Sonnen has not fought at light heavyweight since his UFC debut way back at UFC 55, or the fact that he was supposed to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 155, or that he is just coming off a loss to Anderson Silva, or that there is at least one legitimate contender in line before him, or that Dana White just got through telling us that the winner of Shogun/Gustafsson would likely receive the next title shot. Actually, we can’t look past any of that. In no alternate universe does this matchup make sense.
In an effort to shut up us dumb media types and help boost ratings for a show that has long since passed its prime, Dana White and the UFC have apparently agreed to sacrifice the legitimacy of the light heavyweight title/division. Believe me when I say that I loathe making this comparison, but we are witnessing some WWE-type bullshit right here. Sonnen talks some trash to Jones on Twitter and all of a sudden he’s a contender? Without even winning a fight in the division? This is exactly what we were worried about. Stepping up on short notice is one thing, but putting the light heavyweight division on hold for yet another squash match simply because it will net the promotion a greater financial gain is, simply put, a shameful decision on the UFC’s part.
Will this break the ratings slide that TUF has been facing as of late? Undoubtedly. Will Sonnen make for one of the greatest TUF coaches of all time? You bet your bottom dollar he will. Is this a completely transparent and shallow move by the UFC? Abso-fucking-lutely. It really puts into perspective what motivates The Baldfather these days.
Yes, I know we just called for a hiatus on these “TUF ratings are in the shitter” posts. And I know O Chan just finished explaining why, from a network perspective, selling ads on original programming like TUF is better than giving them away during a broadcast of Big Momma’s House 2, even if the raw numbers are declining. But still, guys. You need to hear this.
A week after season 16 of TUF scored its highest amount of viewers with 1,100,000 — thanks to a strong lead-in from the UFC on FX 5 broadcast — the show reached rock bottom and saw that number shrink to just 624,000 for episode 5. In other words, only 56.7% of last week’s viewers stuck around for the next episode. It’s the worst viewership tally in the show’s history, falling alarmingly short of the previous low-ratings record of 775,000 viewers. It’s gotten so ugly that BG’s prediction of 660,000 viewers representing the nadir of the season has already been shattered two weeks after he made it. Time to readjust our already-low expectations.
Yes, I know we just called for a hiatus on these “TUF ratings are in the shitter” posts. And I know O Chan just finished explaining why, from a network perspective, selling ads on original programming like TUF is better than giving them away during a broadcast of Big Momma’s House 2, even if the raw numbers are declining. But still, guys. You need to hear this.
A week after season 16 of TUF scored its highest amount of viewers with 1,100,000 — thanks to a strong lead-in from the UFC on FX 5 broadcast — the show reached rock bottom and saw that number shrink to just 624,000 for episode 5. In other words, only 56.7% of last week’s viewers stuck around for the next episode. It’s the worst viewership tally in the show’s history, falling alarmingly short of the previous low-ratings record of 775,000 viewers. It’s gotten so ugly that BG’s prediction of 660,000 viewers representing the nadir of the season has already been shattered two weeks after he made it. Time to readjust our already-low expectations.
At the risk of harping on the same points over and over again, part of the problem is the coaches. On one hand, you have a portly, middling heavyweight who, despite possessing great grappling and heavy hands, has yet to truly impress in the UFC and is best recognized for his unorthodox physique and mangy facial hair. On the other, you have an aging slugger who has really heavy hands — and worse everything else — coming off a year-long layoff from back surgery, and is notoriously media-averse. Point being, you’re not exactly getting charisma here. The only “drama” this show can muster is how much Nelson annoys Carwin and White. It’s not must-see TV by any stretch of the imagination.
But more than anything, it’s the lack of talent on the show. Brazil’s TUF is much more interesting because it has the potential to do what the first few seasons of TUF were able to do: unearth prospects. Brazil’s MMA scene is so disorganized and disassociated from the American scene that it’s entirely plausible that certain prospects have slipped through the cracks, suffered losses fighting at heavier weights, or simply haven’t possessed the requisite amount of free time to hone their skills. TUF offers fighters like that a shot that they may not get anywhere else. In America, though, the MMA scene is now developed enough that fighters who show promise and achieve early success are recognized relatively quickly, and are picked up by larger organizations — including the UFC — before they’d consider entering onto a tedious reality TV show.
Combine this with viewer fatigue for the stale format and the Friday Death Slot, and you have the ratings disaster that season 16 is. Over a million people tuned in a week ago, largely on the coattails of UFC on FX 5, and over 400,000 of those viewers said to themselves, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” (To be fair, they’re not alone.) You can’t spin that into something positive, no matter how hard you try. The only intrigue left for this season is if Carwin will actually agree to VADA drug testing leading up to the bout. (Considering his manager just accused arguably the most effective drug testing organization available to fighters of bullying Carwin, and insinuated that Nelson’s hair is an equally serious violation of the rules as doping, I suspect his answer will be “no.”)
If you need any more convincing, here’s a sad little statistic: TUF 16 episode 5 got beat in the ratings by a TBS overnight movie that aired at 4AM. Look, we all know how hard it is to say goodbye to things we once loved. But the UFC, for whatever reason, simply doesn’t want to come to grips with the fact that their cable TV labor-of-love needs to go. It’s time to say goodbye, for TUF’s own sake, if nothing else.
