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dave's comments:
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I don’t want to go too much into this one, because this Dave Meltzer vs. Dana White stuff has gotten silly, particularly since we
are, as funny as this sounds if you saw his video blog, in pretty regular contact and on good terms. Not that there wasn’t an
issue, but that’s likely to happen again. He’s a promoter and that’s his job. The FOX rating was down, but he focused on the
idea that they delivered theywon the night in the key demographic, which is true compared to the other network shows, but it
was also not the highest rated show that day in those key demos. And theywere also way down in the key demos from the prior
shows. But everything going in knew that would be the case, between the competition and the weaker lineup from a marquee
standpoint.
The 1.5 rating and 2.418 million viewers were both the lowest marks for MMA on network television . It was below that of a 2008
Elite XC show headlined byRobbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith . That show did a 1.75 rating and 2.6 million viewers. And that show
had head-to-head competition from a UFC show on Spike with the first TV airing of Chuck Liddell vs.Wanderlei Silva fight from
the previous December, which at the time was a monster fight. That replay did a 1.23 rating and 1.6 million viewers. That CBS
show did not do well with Males 18-34, doing a 1.0, but did a 1.6 in Males 35-49. The UFC show last week did a 1.6 and 1.8 in
those respective demos. MMA is on network television more to target Males 18-49, the idea of super serving a unique clientele
than draw the largest total viewing numbers. It’s already accepted that older people and younger people aren’t going to watch
MMA in great numbers on television. But for advertisers, the idea is for people looking for males with disposable income of a
certain age group, UFC can be a strong target buy. At least, that’s the theory behind it.
The other low rated MMA show on prime time network, the disastrous April 17, 2010, Strikeforce show from Nashville,
headlined by Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson fight, did a 1.76 rating and 2.86 million viewers. Once again, it had to compete
with UFC ran counter programming on Spike, a tape of a PPV show headlined by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez
that did a 1.0 rating and 1.37 million viewers. That CBS show did a 1.3 in Males 18-34 and 1.7 in Males 35-49. Still, CBS was in
first place that night among every adult male demo that night, the pointWhite made about the FOX show on 5/5, but it wasn’t
enough. CBS never ran another Strikeforce show. The primary reason given was the brawl at the end involving the Diaz
Brothers, Gilbert Melendez and others beating down Jason Miller when he got in the ring to challenge Shields to a rematch.
However, if the show had done better ratings, it would have been saved. The reaction at CBS was very negative to the rating.
There were those at the time against the programming to begin with, but the first show with Fedor Emelianenko on top did well.
When the rating dropped big, even though it was the brawl as the reason, there were plenty of people saying CBS needed to get
out of this because it does weak ratings as well. Those ratings were comparable, a little higher in most demos but lower in
Males 18-34, than what the UFC FOX show did on 5/5.
White did note the reasons, and in our article last week, we noted almost every one of them as well. The point about the
number of homes watching television that night being down 10% from a usual Saturday night is valid. The opening of “The
Avengers” absolutely hurt the rating. All the other factors are also not a secret. Even throwing them out, this show wasn’t doing
close to what the other two shows did. But the Mayweather fight was bucking all the same things, the holiday, the movie, prom
night, the other sports, and did great, the second biggest non-heavyweight fight in history and the biggest boxing PPV show in five years. But that was a must-see event for a lot of sports fans and the UFC event was not.
FOX also didn’t market the show well.
One point that needs to be brought up is the marketing of the event during sports broadcasts were built around “four fights,” as
noted last week, never saying UFC, never saying MMA. If you heard the commercial and didn’t know better, you would assume it
was a bunch of no-name boxers except put in prime time. The argument was that Jim Miller and Nate Diazweren’t big names
to the public is true, but how do you become big names? A big part of it is being marketed as big names.Who, really, was
Junior Dos Santos to anyone but a UFC fan in August of last year? But they promoted the hell out of Dos Santos and Cain
Velasquez, and the night of the show, theywere big enough stars to have 9.5 million people watching that one minute fight.
I’m not saying if FOX promoted the hell out of Nate Diaz, they’d have gotten a similar rating, because that wasn’t going to
happen on that night. The heavyweight title meant something. Two big knockout artists mean something. It wasn’t the right
night. And Jim Miller as an opponent, God bless him, but he’s not a guywho is going to draw you big money on top. Football
season shows have an advantage because such a huge male audience watches the NFL and they can directly hit people who
at least may have the proclivity to be MMA fans. But if FOX promoted the hell out of Nate Diaz on all their sports properties for a
month, all of a sudden, as sports fans keep hearing his name as the main eventer of a major fight card, it becomes a
recognizable name.
White even argued that Diaz came out of the show a bigger star. And he got a decisive win in a main event that 2.9 million
people saw. It probably does help the eventual Diaz challenge to either Frankie Edgar or Benson Henderson.White said
coming off this that the Diaz Brothers can be one of the hottest commodities in UFC. And the show was good, although I’ve
seen plenty of awesome exciting sports events from leagues that aren’t in existence today. This isn’t saying UFC is going
down, just that it’s great to have a good show, but a company can’t hang its hat on good shows and that being enough. It needs
to constantlymake big stars, because star power trumps exciting fights every time, and Mayweather Jr.’s numbers prove it
since he’s a superstar, but he rarely has exciting fights (the last one being an exception). And if anything, UFC’s has clearly
proven for years that it can be a successful sports franchise without prime time network television.
On 5/12, as part of FOX’s new Saturday night sports experiment, a NASCAR race from Darlington Speedway did 5.716 million
viewers, well over double the UFC audience, and beat the UFC number by 50% in the targeted 18-49 demo. Granted, it was an
easier night. No Mayweather. The Avengers did “only” $42.9 million on that night as opposed to the $69.6 million it did the prior
Saturday. But there were still NBA and NHL playoffs. The baseball numbers are going to be important as well this summer. In
the end, UFC in prime time is going to be judged by how well it produces in the ratings with the other sports in FOX’s Saturday
night lineup, baseball in the summer, college football in the fall and winter, and NASCAR. Strikeforce got canceled winning the
target demographics of Males 18-34 against shows the equivalent of Crimetime Saturday and 48 Hours Mystery on other
networks that everyone knows mainly hit a lot older viewers. UFC does have an advantage Strikeforce and Elite XC don’t have.
UFC is a key sports franchise under the company’s umbrella and having big shows on the big network adds prestige to the
franchise as a whole. They have a long-term deal and the franchise is key prime time programming on FX, and the entire Fuel
station is being built around UFC as its key programming. But at the end of the day, nobody stays on network prime time without
delivering.
The card was the No. 1 show on network television in both Males 18-34 and Males 18-49. But three NBA games and one
episode of Sports Center that day on cable beat them in Males 18-49. Four NBA games beat them in Males 18-34, including a
Memphis vs. Los Angeles Clippers game that aired at 5 p.m. Eastern, outside
_________________ Drop In wrote: I'm picturing a 12 year old Bob Loblaw bitching out a Randy Savage Wrestling Buddy for botching his finisher. Also envisioning Bob Loblaw getting bitched at for lighting the living room table on fire for said finisher.
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