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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC's first year with Fox, FX, and Fuel came with lots of growing pains, and one of the biggest issues they had in 2012 was poor ratings on Friday nights. The term "poor" is relative in this case, as it was a definite hit to the UFC both in terms of live events and especially for The Ultimate Fighter. However, they were good numbers in the UFC's key demographic for Friday nights, and FX was pleased.
But continuing on in that fashion would not have been good for the UFC in the short or longterm, a fact that was recognized as they move off of Fridays altogether in 2013, beginning with the Ultimate Fighter's move to Tuesday nights next month. UFC President Dana White commented earlier this week on the issue of Friday night programming, and his response seemed like one he had been holding back for some time.
"Fridays suck," White said earlier this week (via MMAFighting.com). "I think it's the worst night on TV. It's supposed to be the second-worst night on TV. Saturday's supposed to be the worst. But, for instance, The Ultimate Fighter Finale on Friday, the one from Australia, did a million [viewers]. Saturday did 1.3 million. The male 18-34 demos were off the charts on Saturday night. I honestly think Friday night is the worst night on TV. ... You have people getting off work. No one gets off work on Friday and runs home and watches TV. You get off work on Friday, you're going out, no one's watching TV.
"Everyone has that Saturday where you're laying around and you'll watch TV on Saturday night or whatever," White continued. "Friday's the worst night for television. It's all older people watching TV on Saturdays. That's where there's all these myths when we do these things on Saturday, [people say] ‘Murder She Wrote' beat you on Saturday.' Of course they did. That's all the old people at home watching people on TV. Saturday night. That's why they beat us. But the male viewers in our demos are off the charts, number one."
While White affirmed that, while FX officials were pleased with the Friday night numbers from the UFC and wanted them to stay there, they recognized that the UFC wasn't happy with it, and he gave the network credit for making the change.
"Everyone was taking about the death of TUF on Friday nights," White said. "Not for FX it wasn't. For us it was. It was terrible for us. But for them, they were top three all season in males 18-34 on a night when they'd be running a movie that would be hit or miss for them in different demos. So, believe me, they wanted to keep us on Fridays. They made me a promise that if the thing didn't pick up and the numbers didn't pick up, they'd move it. They stuck by their word. But the numbers on Fridays, they wanted us to stay there."
Penick's Analysis: Had they continued on Friday nights into 2013, numbers would have continued to drop regardless of who the coaches were. It's not a show people will take time out of their social lives to stay home and watch. On Tuesday's, it's a lot more likely people are home watching television in general, and they should see a significant boost just from that fact alone. But Fridays were clearly not working for the UFC, and FX being fine with it showed part of the dynamic working against the UFC in this deal. But FX made the change, and we'll see a very different dynamic for the UFC and Fox's family of networks in 2013 and beyond.
[Dana White art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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