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'The Ultimate Fighter 16' ratings: Season debut draws 947K viewers

by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Sep 17, 2012 at 5:45 pm ET
This past Friday's debut episode of "The Ultimate Fighter 16: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson" drew a total audience size of 947,000 viewers to FX.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the ratings information with industry sources.

The two-hour episode featured 16 elimination fights between the season's 32 welterweight competitors. The figure marks a 27-percent decrease from the 1.3 million viewers who tuned in to FX for the season debut of "The Ultimate Fighter: Live" this past March.

The ratings figure now serves as the lowest debut mark in the series' history.

"The Ultimate Fighter" returned to a taped format for the 16th edition of the long-running series. Heavyweights Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson serve as coaches and meet in the headlining bout of the Dec. 15 live finale.

Spike TV, the former home of "The Ultimate Fighter," ran a repeat of The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale in the same timeslot as the "TUF: 16" debut. That airing drew 434,000 viewers.

Spike TV began airing "TUF" in early 2005, but as part of the UFC's mega-deal with FOX, the series moved to FX in 2012. During the show's longtime run on Spike TV, "TUF" averaged approximately 1.7 million viewers. The 12-edition "TUF: Live" series (also known as "TUF 15") averaged 1,014,500 viewers in its debut run.

Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson?

'Nuff said.

All reality shows eventually go bad.

 bazooka, on 18 September 2012 - 09:34 AM, said:

Yeah, its a testament to the shows' staying power that it has made it 15-16 seasons before the numbers really started getting bad, but everything comes to an end eventually enough. Maybe the UFC will have to come up with another reality show idea to replace the ultimate fighter in the next few years.

That said, I'll eventually try to check it out as I think Big Country will be good tv.

Also to remember, nobody watches tv on Friday nights anyway. Its a notoriously bad night for tv shows to air since nobody is home at night watching anything.

 D-Gonza, on 18 September 2012 - 10:07 PM, said:

Boss is on Friday nights.  Starz puts all their shows on Fridays.  I think the Sunday night lineup has just gotten to be overloaded with shows.

 bazooka, on 19 September 2012 - 11:10 AM, said:

Starz doesn't need huge numbers for their shows though on the night they air. Just like Showtime and HBO, they count reruns and on demand viewers in their ratings numbers.

 bazooka, on 18 September 2012 - 09:34 AM, said:

The original reality show, The Real World is still pretty damn good. That and their Challenge shows are just great, brainless, eye-candy filled TV.

Hey Gonz, what movie is that pic from? Another Expendables movie?

 True Fist, on 21 September 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

The next Universal Soldier sequel; Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning. Comes out on VOD in October, hits theaters in November.

 True Fist, on 21 September 2012 - 10:20 AM, said:

Horrible, horrible television.  You guys watch that crap......yet I am the one getting ripped for watching a lot of qualtiy TV shows on HBO, showtime, etc.?   WTF