The Ultimate Fight Night special on Spike TV, Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first big foray into live television, drew over 2 million viewers on Saturday night based on initial estimates by Nielsen Media Research. This amounts to a 1.5 cable rating.
Additionally, the show delivered just under a million in a key demo, males aged 18 to 49, on the show that featured a main event of Ivan Salaverry vs. Nathan Marquardt as well as several matches intended to groom fighters coming out of the first Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV.
While Spike TV painted the news in a positive light, the rating is a disappointment. The show, which was the first in a series of six live specials to air on the network over the course of the next television season, was outdrawn both by the first television special—the April 9 Ultimate Fighter finale—which drew a 1.96 final cable rating and a March 28 episode of Ultimate Fighter which featured a grudge match between Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck which drew a 2.03 rating.
The show drew its highest rating, a 2.8, during a quarter hour that featured the main event of Nathan Marquardt and Ivan Salaverry. Unfortunately, the match ended in disappointment for UFC as Salaverry, who the company intended to groom, lost in a lackluster match that went to decision in 15 minutes. In a replay scheduled for Thursday, the match will be replaced by Alex Karalexis and Kenny Florian, an unaired match from the card which was said to be one of the best fights of the night.
Other matches that did air, such as Sam Hoger vs. Stephan Bonnar and Patrick Cote vs. Chris Leben, were more entertaining and helped lead to positive reception of the show. A fight the caliber of Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin on the Ultimate Fighter Finale was absent.
Whether UFC can garner an impressive audience for the second season of its Ultimate Fighter series and maintain it when WWE leaves the network in several weeks remains to be seen.
Ultimate Fighter II debuts Monday, August 22 at 11:05 pm. The show airs after the RAW after Summerslam. This will also be two days after Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn and Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale headlines UFC 54: Boiling Point on August 20.
