UFC on Fox 3 BOMBS in the ratings

[CrimsonGhost56]

Saturday’s UFC on FOX 3, which featured a low-profile main-event matchup between Nate Diaz and Jim Miller, garnered just a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating with 2.3 million viewers.

such a shame since it was a good card....god awful promotion by the UFC

[SHOGUN]

Fighters draw, not the brand.

[EmpireWF]

Ouch.

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Lets make sure we make a huge deal out of a single fight that ends up being 30 seconds of fighting and 58 minutes of talk our first go round.

Lets put a guy who loves to drag out fights for 5 rounds in the M.E of our second one.

Lets make sure we get as many non mainstream names into our 3rd go around.

UFC is retarded. They fucked this up since the get go.

I thoroughly enjoyed the one last night but UFC decision making has been nothing short of egotistical and atrocious. Last good decision they made was buying strikeforce and event that is looking retarded as Fedors a bum , Overeem is a horse , and Shields is a losing snoozer.

[CrimsonGhost56]

they got the AMERICAN HERO Brian Stann for the next show on UFC

[SHOGUN]

they got the AMERICAN HERO Brian Stann for the next show on UFC

But will it really matter when the UFC has essentially gone 0/3 on every big TV spot?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Can't wait to hear Dana spin this, like they way he has spun the fact that nobody gives a fuck about TUF anymore, or how the FX and Fuel shows always tank.

He will probably find the one demo that did moderately well and focus on that.

"The show did great in the 21-35 white male demo in 19 of the top 40 markets. This was a fucking home run, none of these fucking idiots in the media have a clue, we are killing it in the 21-35 white male demo in 19 of the top 40 markets, and FOX is very very happy."

Zuffa will learn the hard way that to stay on network prime time TV, you have to deliver or you will be gone, contract or no contract. They will pay you to not air and will put on COPS reruns. This is the big leagues. Zuffa is boxed into a corner, they need to give up PPV fights for free or this shit isn't going to work.

The worst decision they ever made was doing the stand alone heavyweight title fight. It was a gamble, and they lost. That was there chance to win over millions, and they dropped the ball. Last night's show should have been the undercard of JDS/Cain. And ironically, they had Guida/Bendo, which the whole fucking world knew was going to be great, on that show and wasting away on fucking facebook.

LOL ZUFFA

[Liquidrob]

FLOP on FOX

lol @ zuffa, EliteXC and SF on CBS drew similar numbers to the UFC, where are all the media types and MMA fans now that were blasting SF?

"STRIKEFORCE CANT PROMOTE", "CBS DOESNT EVEN SUPPORT MMA!" and blah, blah, blah

[Warner2BruceTD]

The second show is the right idea. The story on the third show was not that it did badly, as everyone knew it would, but just how badly.

Shows the base audience for UFC on network TV is much lower than anyone expected and also they've scorched the brand name. It used to be "UFC" alone was good for a certain level of buys on PPV and a certain level of audience on television. Spike did 1.2's for shows way worse in star power than this one.

Now "UFC" due to so much product has become boxing. 3-5 times a year people will care, when the ESPN's of the world pay it some attention or as long as GSP fights or if a new star is created. Rest of the time, it's endless Friday Night Fights that nobody talks about, watches or cares about.

That was the long term inevitability of too much product.

BOOM. Dave right on point here.

I talked to this overexposure point years ago to you goofballs. Part of the appeal was that UFC was always a special event. They've over expanded, and over exposed the product.

Dana's plan of UFC every night, like team sports, was a flawed business model from the start. This does not mean UFC will be folding up shop, far from it. But running so many shows is a double edged sword. You can make lots of money on a high quantity of events, but it will lead to fewer and fewer HUGE events and the UFC will never become a true 'mainstream' sport attempting the quantity model. It's just too much.

[Liquidrob]

lol @ warner trying to jump on my waterdowned UFC cards for years angle

UFC promotes 'the best show ever' every show and rapes it's fan base, has for years, the most expensive sporting promotion to follow now a days, but the 'loyal' goofs still pay for it

[Warner2BruceTD]

But even if the cards weren't watered down, which they clearly are, it would still be too much.

This same thing is going to happen in the NFL if they keep increasing the number of televised games on new days of the week. It's a fine line.

[Point Blank]

It doesn't help that they were competing with the Mayweather fight that night.

[Kuzzy Powers]

It doesn't help that they were competing with the Mayweather fight that night.

They really werent tho.. infact it should've been perfectly set up for people to watch the UFC fights for free then catch Mayweather/Cotto afterwards.

[SHOGUN]

It doesn't help that they were competing with the Mayweather fight that night.

Not nearly as much competition as you think. As soon as the UFC card was over, the PPV was showing the second half of the Jessie Vargas/Steve Forbes fight.

[Liquidrob]

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/5/8/3007238/ufc-on-fox-3-ratings-show-massive-viewership-decline#storyjump

Final UFC on Fox 3 Ratings Show Massive Viewership Decline
by Brent Brookhouse on May 8, 2012 12:00 PM EDT in UFC News

3 days ago: May 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Nate Diaz (left) and Jim Miller address the crowd after their lightweight bout during UFC on Fox 3 at the Izod Center. Nate Diaz wins by submission in round two. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-US PRESSWIRE


Browse more photos »
As we reported on Sunday, the overnight ratings for the UFC's third effort on Fox were not exactly encouraging. The final ratings are not exactly showing any improvement either. The final story here is going to be that the UFC lost half the viewers from the second Fox effort, which was down from the huge number on the first show.

While no one expected that massive number for the heavyweight title fight between Junior dos Santos and then champion Cain Velasquez to continue forward, I don't think anyone quite expected this.

Here's the exact info:

@tvsportsratings
TVSportsratings UFC on FOX 3: 1.6 Men 18-34 (-50% vs. UFC on FOX 2) and 2.4 mil viewers (-48%)
May 08 via web Favorite Retweet Reply


It gets worse:

@lorettahuntmma
Loretta Hunt UFC on FOX 3 did 2.418 million average viewers for 1.5 HH rating. It was No. 6 out of the 8 programs that ran in same time slots.
May 08 via HootSuite Favorite Retweet Reply

More after the jump...



Another tweet of some interest:

@MMASupremacy
MMA Supremacy UFC on FOX 3 did -34% on average than 2012 episodes of COPS, which air on same time slot (Saturday nights) #mma #UFC #fox #ratings
May 08 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply


Look, it's not hard to figure out what happened. The UFC went for excitement (which they got) but didn't bring the necessary big names to the party. And we can keep pretending it didn't matter, but they were heads-up with a boxing show that had four fighters (Canelo, Mosley, Mayweather and Cotto) who are bigger than anyone on that UFC card will ever be in terms of name value. Without star power, no one was going to turn off the PPV they just dropped $70 for.

They're going to try to spin this into that they still won the timeslot in specific (probably young male) demos. And that may be true, but huge declines and finishing 6th of 8 is not good in any way.

As long as they take it as a learning experience and move forward appropriately there's no reason for panic just yet.