(You’re entering a world of pain, Jay Leno.)
When we opened our inbox to find an email from Spike TV about last night’s "Ultimate Fighter" 10 season premiere, we expected the usual ratings chest-thumping where they point out how well it did in the 18-34 year-old male demographic that the UFC basically owns, while leaving out how it got smoked by some terrible network TV offering that plays to the very old, the very stupid, and the too-lazy-to-change-the-channel demographic. But instead what we saw were numbers actually worth bragging about. According to Spike TV, last night’s TUF 10 premiere "was not only the most watched episode in the series history, but also in network history for an original."
Of course, the other network original that it beat out was the season finale of something called "The Joe Schmo Show" in 2003, which somehow garnered 3.4 million viewers. It sounds less impressive that way, but the point is that the TUF 10 premiere got 4.1 million viewers, which crushed the previous TUF high of 2.8 million set by the season three finale. And yes, in the 18-34 male demo it also beat out a bunch of network shows like "America’s Got Talent," "So You Think You Can Dance," "The Jay Leno Show," and something called "Glee," which we at first thought was a typo but turns out is an actual show. God help us.
So does this mean that the drawing power of Kimbo Slice is now beyond question? Or could it be that the silent, but fiercely loyal fans of Darrill "Titties" Schoonover helped push the TUF ratings to new heights? It would be irresponsible of us to speculate (just kidding, it was "Titties"), but odds are the Spike TV execs are just glad that something finally pushed "The Joe Schmo Show" out of the top spot after so many years. Now when advertisers ask them what their greatest ratings success was they don’t have to mumble the answer into the backs of their hands before quickly changing the subject by asking, ‘Who else could go for some chicken strips right about now?’
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The show proved to millions that A. size doesn't count for shit when there is a huge gap in technique and B. A big strong striker with poor ground skills is a fish out of water against any experienced wrestler
The bad..
A massive amount of people probably got turned off to mma due to the blood and brutality of that fight.. and lack of visible technique to those who don't appreciate wrestling. Let's hope old Bill wasn't watching and continues his ignorance in using fights like Lesnar vs Couture (a good fight that really wasn't very brutal) to try and display the brutality of the sport.