Posted by Jake Rossen/Sherdog.com
Television folks spin numbers with the expertise of politicians. There is never, ever a cut-and-dried measure of success or failure because too many variables exist.
Case in point: Spike's recent trumpeting that its re-broadcast of UFC 100 last Saturday pummeled "Strikeforce: Carano vs. 'Cyborg'" in "the advertiser-coveted demographic" of males ages 18-34 (513,000 UFC viewers vs. 181,000 for Strikeforce). According to MMAJunkie, the UFC's overall audience of two million snickered at the 576,000 suckers who watched Showtime. (I'm paraphrasing. They were more polite about it.)
It's a seemingly obvious victory for the bigger, stronger promotion -- particularly considering any suspense accompanying its product had already been spoiled. But when you consider that Showtime is available in roughly one-fifth as many households as Spike and nabbed a similar share of the available viewership, the feat becomes substantially less impressive. Relative to their respective potential audiences -- 21 million for Showtime compared to 98 million for Spike -- Strikeforce actually outdrew the UFC 100 redux. It was also the highest-rated MMA broadcast ever for Showtime, beating out the 522,000 viewers who gaped at Kimbo Slice's mugging of David "Tank" Abbott in February 2008.
In the past, Showtime has drawn similar numbers for premiere episodes of popular series, but it's not often that CBS bleats that "CSI: Miami" beat the cable network. It's an apples-to-oranges comparison. And it doesn't take into account any viewers who will catch replays of the event on the Showtime On Demand funnel.
The only way to determine a clear victory on a level playing field is for the UFC to broadcast an event on an over-air network (NBC, ABC or FOX) against a Strikeforce show on CBS. And if those numbers don't favor one promotion, you can bet one will mention its capture of the highly valued one-legged-albinos-with-dysentery demo.
ESPN.com Mixed Martial Arts blog
