"The Ultimate Fighter" Season 13 Continues To Find Its Footing, Episode 4 Draws 1.3 Million Viewers

It’s been a rather interesting thirteenth season of the popular and long-running UFC reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter”. I think this season will be viewed as a learning experience at the very least. Built almost solely around the drawing power of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, TUF 13 premiered to mediocre numbers and actually lost viewers at one point. Now the latest ratings information is in, and it appears that TUF 13 is settling in at 1.3 million average viewers per episode. Here are all the details.

MMA Junkie brings us the official ratings breakdown for the recent TUF 14 episode 4. According to their report, the episode averaged 1.3 million viewers, with a 1.24 rating in the men 18-49 demographic and a 1.23 in the men 18-34 demographic. These numbers mirror the numbers of last week’s episode 3.

Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter” features Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos as coaches, coaching a team of Welterweight hopefuls. For a full recap of TUF 13 episode 4, check out the latest edition of “TUF Talks”, my weekly TUF recap series, available right here.

I’d like to take this time to expand on something I said in the commentary portion of that “TUF Talks”: this season of TUF is pretty difficult to judge.

There are two ways to judge “The Ultimate Fighter”, so I’ll examine them both. First up: does TUF 13 measure up as a reality television program?

Here’s my answer: maybe not yet, but it’s getting there. These last few episodes in particular have seen some increased drama from both sides. Brock Lesnar is growing increasingly frustrated with his team, and it feels like we’re only a few episodes away from the all-out disintegration of Team Lesnar. That’s some good drama right there. Team Dos Santos also had some interesting drama develop due to the brash Assistant Coach Lew Polley. As much as I think Polley was just doing it to get his face and name on television, it certainly was interesting to see Junior dos Santos deal with him. We’ve also had a chance to get to know the TUF cast a lot more in these recent episodes.

So, when it comes right down to it, I think TUF 13 is succeeding as a reality television show. The drama is building, and so is the anticipation. I’m starting to tune in because I want to find out what happens next episode, not just because it’s TUF and I’ll always watch it no matter what.

But here’s the thing that’s most important for a vast majority of the UFC faithful: is TUF 13 successful as a venue to watch free fights?

And let’s be brutally honest: no, no it isn’t. There’s been one good fight in four episodes. That fight was really good, of that there can be no doubt, but it just doesn’t make up for several long, drawn-out, boring decisions. Even the fourth episode’s fight, which ended in the second round due to submission, had a very boring first round. Aside from the fight in episode 3, all the fights in TUF 13 just haven’t been all that good.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen far worse fights on TUF. As I so often love to bring up, the tenth season was loaded with fights that were practically sins against nature and utter abominations. But at least that season had big draws like Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson.

Overall, I think Season 13 of TUF is still very much a work-in-progress. The drama is certainly getting better, but the fight quality leaves a lot to be desired. But I do think it’s a good sign that the ratings are settling in. This season may not have delivered the monster ratings everyone was hoping for, but at least TUF hasn’t lost any viewers for two weeks in a row.

And what about you, fans and friends? Any thoughts on these numbers?