UFC SUPERSTAR ANDERSON SILVA AND SPIKE TV:
Pound For Pound #1 In The Octagon® and #1 In the Ratings
UFC Fight Featuring Brazilian Champ Tops In All Of Television
With Young Men On July 21
Telecast Peaks At 3.8 Million Viewers For Silva vs. James Irvin
Light Heavyweight Main Event
New York, NY, July 22, 2008 — The Ultimate Fighting Championship® proved yet again to be the ratings champion with the hard-to-reach demographic of young men. Spike TV’s telecast of a live “UFC Fight Night” on Saturday, July 19 (9:00pm-12:00am ET) featuring the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Anderson Silva, out-delivered every other channel (broadcast and cable) with Men 18-34 (903,000), Men 18-49 (1,550,000), Men 25-34 (622,000), and Persons 18-34 (1,326,000).* The telecast peaked at 11:30pm for the Silva vs. James Irvin bout drawing 3.8 million viewers and a staggering 4.9 rating for Men 25-34 and a 4.1 rating in Men 18-34.
The UFC fight card also drew more viewers than FOX’s coverage of MLB (3,072,000) earlier in the day and nearly tripled its reach of Men 18-34 (369,000) and doubled the Men 18-49 (879,000).
Overall, the three-hour live UFC event averaged a 2.1 household rating, a 2.8 with Men 18-49, a 3.2 with Men 18-34, a 2.0 with P18-49 and 3.1 million total viewers. Comparing to other marquee weekend events, Spike’s UFC telecast also drew more Men 18-49 than ESPN’s coverage of “The ESPY Awards” (1,127,000) and Men 18-34 (689,000).
Compared to the time period a year ago, the “UFC Fight Night” was up +229% in household rating, +451% in M18-49, +463% in M18-34, +470% in M25-34 and +266% in average audience.
The “UFC Fight Night,” emanating from The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV, was headlined by arguably the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter in any combat sport, “The Spider” Silva, as he moved up a weight class to fight “The Sandman” Irvin in the light heavyweight division. It was Silva who brought the “Sandman” a dream, dispatching Irvin just over a minute into the first round of their matchup with a barrage of punches that resulted in a referee stoppage. In other action, Frankie Edgar spoiled Hermes Franca’s return to the Octagon™ by controlling the fight with his strong wrestling and ground and pound style, earning a unanimous decision from the judges and Brandon Vera won a decision over Reese Andy.
Spike TV is available in 96.1 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com.
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