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UFC 75 Broadcast Breaks Spike TV and North American Ratings Records
Saturday’s tape-delayed broadcast of UFC 75 scored a 3.1 rating — or, approximately 4.7 million viewers — to set an all-time ratings record for Spike TV. Additionally, the event was the most-watch mixed-martial-arts event ever in North America.
Spike TV made the announcement early this afternoon.
UFC 75, which took place at the 02 Arena in London, England, was shown later that night. The broadcast included the first-ever title fight shown originally by Spike TV, which began airing “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and other UFC-related programming in 2005.
The audience peaked with approximately 5.6 million viewers during the night’s main event, a title-unification bout between UFC 205-pound champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Pride champ Dan Henderson. Jackson scored a unanimous-decision victory in the five-round fight.
Saturday’s broadcast also featured a controversial split-decision victory for Michael Bisping over Matt Hamill, and Cheick Kongo’s upset of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. Houston Alexander and Marcus Davis also picked up victories on the televised portion of the event.
In the key “men ages 18-49” demographic, UFC 75’s 2.5 million viewers beat ABC’s broadcast of an Oregon vs. Michigan college football game (1.2 million) and subsequent NASCAR broadcast (717,000).
Prior to UFC 75, the highest-rated Spike TV/UFC broadcast was October 2006’s “Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3: The Final Chapter” event, which also drew a 3.1 rating.
Spike TV next airs a live event on Wednesday, Sept. 19, when Din Thomas meets Kenny Florian in the main event of UFC Fight Night 11. The event airs at 9 p.m. and precedes the debut episode of “The Ultimate Fighter: Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra.“
damn....those are huge numbers...
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