Wednesday night’s highly anticipated edition of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter delivered a monster rating that put this week’s edition of WWE Raw to shame. UFC President Dana White boldly predicted 6 million viewers would tune in for Kimbo Slice’s first UFC fight and he was right on the money.
The 1-hour broadcast drew a 3.7 cable rating and averaged 5.3 million viewers. The final 15-minute segment featuring the Kimbo-Nelson fight drew a staggering 6.1 million viewers, making it the most watched MMA show on Spike ever. The show drew a massive 6.81 rating in the M18-34 demo, with a 5.4 for M18-49.
Despite Kimbo Slice’s shortcoming inside the cage, his ability to draw in fans is undeniable. ?He now holds three of the top four most viewed MMA fights in the sport’s history.
By comparison, Monday’s Raw hosted by Al Sharpton drew a 3.1 cable rating with 4.5 million viewers, the lowest rating of the year. Even uglier was Raw’s performance in the M18-49 demographic. UFC killed it with a 5.4 rating while Raw drew a meager 1.86.
Before the Ultimate Fighter rating came out, the backstage feeling within WWE was that “sh*t would hit the fan” and changes would be in store if UFC beat Raw this week. While the UFC show featured a special attraction in Kimbo Slice’s first UFC fight and the company likely won’t be able to sustain those numbers, WWE will not take this lightly.
The full hour drew an average of 5.3 million viewers, with viewership peaking in the final 15 minutes. The 3.7 household rating the show garnered was the highest for any MMA show ever, though this was just a one hour broadcast.
It is officially the most viewed MMA fight on Spike, surpassing the 5.9 million that tuned in to see Quinton “Rampage” Jackson square off against Dan Henderson on the UFC 75 event. The show drew a massive 6.81 rating in the M18-34 demo, with a 5.4 in M18-49. It was the most watched episode of an original series in Spike’s six year histor
