Over a year ago, the UFC's pay-per-view numbers couldn't even come close to the WWE's; now they actually beat Wrestlemania at least twice in domestic numbers, as reported in MMAWeekly.  The Wrestling Observer reports that UFC 61 garnered 775,000 pay-per-view buys within the US, adding up to nearly $31 million in gross revenue. And probably international sales numbers add up to a lot more.

But UFC's recent broadcast of Fight Night 9 didn't pull in the ratings; in fact, it was the lowest-rated Fight Night on Spike ever, as well as being the lowest-rating live UFC event on Spike overall in the 18-to-34-year-old male demographic, which is often the only group that advertisers care about for events like this.


Up to Fight Night 7, the ratings seemed to be declining, but UFC Fight Night 8 in January didn't do so badly, raising hope that future Fight Nights would gain more viewers. However, Fight Night 9 on April 5 disappointed, drawing only an overall rating of 1.2. In comparison, that night CBS's CSI had a 12.9, and even a rerun of Family Guy on Fox grabbed a 3.1.

The Ultimate Fighter's having the same problem - The Ultimate Fighter 5 premiere, while also only drawing a 1.4 rating overall, still managed to win a spot as the top show on cable in the 18-to-34-year-old male demographic, with a 1.9 in that category. While that's good news, it's a bit of a decline from the previous years - The Ultimate Fighter 4 premiere had a 2.8 and TUF 3 did even better, with a 3.7. Will this trend continue, or will The Ultimate Fighter 5 gain back its viewers with this season's promised Penn-Pulver match? We'll have to wait and see.

So why the decline in UFC numbers on Spike, while the pay-per-view numbers are soaring? Is pay-per-view just the better arena for this sort of shows and events? What do you think?


-Mel Harris, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MMAWeekly
Photo courtesy of Spike TV