"The Ultimate Fighter" Season 13 Premiere The Lowest-Rated In Four Seasons

How successful was the debut episode of “The Ultimate Fighter”? Many fans and insiders speculated that the season’s premiere and the ensuing season would be one of the most-watched of the show’s entire history. Many people pointed to Brock Lesnar, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, the man who is a Pay-Per-View juggernaut and consistently one of the UFC’s most controversial and talked-about stars, as the main reason why. But in a slightly shocking bit of news, the rating for the “Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 premiere came in at an underwhelming (when put into context) 1.5. Here are all the details.

We head to MMA Fighting for the official scoop. According to their report, the first episode of “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 averaged 1.5 million viewers, which is the lowest it’s been in four seasons. The MMA Fighting report states that the first episodes of Seasons 11, 12, and 13 all out-performed this season’s debut. In recent TUF history, no one has yet been able to come anywhere close to Season 10’s opener, which relied heavily on the involvement of Kimbo Slice.

I honestly am quite shocked that this number is as low as it is. I thought Lesnar at the helm would have given this episode at least a 2.0. So what went wrong? Here are my thoughts.

I think the main reason this debut fizzled instead of exploded was the lack of interest in Lesnar nowadays. Back when he was the UFC champion, you couldn’t go a week without a war erupting between the pro-Lesnar fans and the anti-Lesnar cynics. When Lesnar lost and was frankly humiliated by Cain Velasquez, it struck a crushing blow to such debates. People honestly don’t talk about Lesnar as much as they used to because there’s not much left to say: the Velasquez fight answered a whole lot of questions.

This low number may also have to due with the fact that Lesnar is going up against Junior dos Santos. There’s a lot of people that are excited about that fight, but there’s a lot of people that have a lukewarm reaction to it as well. In the minds of many, it really boils down to one simple question: if Brock Lesnar couldn’t take a punch from Cain Velasquez, what hope does he have against Junior dos Santos? I’m not saying this fight will be as simple as that, but I do agree that the striking of Junior dos Santos is on another level compared to Brock’s striking. It’s not even close. And the fights we talk about the most are always the close ones.

Also, I’ve hesitated to mention this because it makes me sound like something I’m not. So before I say it, please just note that I’m a realist and not a xenophobe. The lower-than-usual rating of this TUF’s season premiere may have something to do with the notion that JDS can’t speak English. I think the debut episode proved that dos Santos is actually pretty understandable. But I can understand why some people would be put off by the notion that a show that revolves around two coaches has one coach that is only understandable through subtitles. I know that has more to do with people’s laziness than with any fault on the part of Junior dos Santos, but we live in a lazy day and age.

Finally, I think the first fight of the season may have had something to do with this rating. To be bluntly honest: it wasn’t a particularly good fight. It wasn’t bad, and trust me, I know bad. I mention the tenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” all the time in reference to bad fights, because there’s a key difference between “bad” and “boring”. And that tenth season had some bad, bad fights. This season’s premiere simply had a boring fight.

Overall, I don’t think anyone at the UFC or Spike TV is particularly upset with this rating. It may not have been the ratings juggernaut that it was hyped up to be, but it’s still a solid number and there’s plenty of room to grow. “The Ultimate Fighter” isn’t going anywhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratings for this season improve on a consistent basis.

And what about you, fans and friends? Any thoughts on why this show didn’t draw as well as everyone was hoping?