TUF 12 Finale draws 2 million viewers, as Strikeforce end-up with 340,000
The television ratings are in from the weekend’s head to head events. The UFC win impressively with 2 million viewers tuning in on Spike to watch The Ultimate Fighter season 12 Finale, although Strikeforce: St. Louis put up a good fight and managed to draw a respectable 340,000 viewers on Showtime.
Sergio Non of USAToday.com weighed in on the ratings for the head to head events:
”In Mixed Martial Arts the core demographics of men ages 18 – 34 and 18- 49, the TUF 12 Finale saw 2.3 and 1.9 ratings, compared to 0.81 and 0.9 for StrikeForce. As part of many basic packages offered by cable and satellite TV providers, Spike is available in more than 98 million homes. Showtime, a premium channel that costs an additional fee has about 18 million subscribers.
‘TUF’s show peaked at 2.3 million viewers between 10.15pm and 10.30pm, when Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia went three rounds in a bout packed with enough action to win the Fight of the Night Bonus. Although Garcia was awarded a heavily disputed split-decision.”
MMAJunkie.com had more on StrikeForce’s numbers:
”This past weekends StrikeForce: Henderson vs Babalu II event on Showtime peaked with 465,000 viewers for the main event bout between Dan Henderson and Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral.”
”The numbers were similar to October’s StrikeForce: Diaz vs Noons II event in San Jose, which averaged 350,000 viewers and peaked with 509,000. However, of the organisation’s seven Arena Series shows in 2010, the December 4th event ranked 5th ( but just 26,000 viewers behind the third ranked StrikeForce: Houston card )”
HT: BloodyElbow.com