UFC 118 Prelims Draws Record-Low Ratings, but What Does That Actually Mean?

The UFC’s choice to air select preliminary fights from select Pay-Per-Views free on Spike TV remains a novel idea that should work in theory but has rarely worked in practice. For one, new programming is generally more interesting to watch than repeats, so new UFC as opposed to old Spike TV reruns should be a formula for success. Also, these are preliminary fights to major Pay-Per-Views, so it should be a great incentive to get fans to order the Pay-Per-View itself. It’s a win-win for both Spike, who can look forward to a ratings bump, and the UFC, who can look forward to a buyrate bump. However, the recent UFC 118 preliminary fights delivered the lowest ratings yet seen for these “Prelims Live” specials, putting the entire effectiveness of the process in doubt.

1.1 million viewers tuned in to see Nik Lentz defeat Andre Winner via Unanimous Decision and Joe Lauzon steamroll Gabe Ruediger before submitting him via armbar at 2:01 of round 1. UFC 109’s prelims garnered the highest of any “Prelims Live” special, with 1.9 million viewers that watched both Melvin Guillard and Mac Danzig fight to a Unanimous Decision win over their opponents, Ronnys Torres and Justin Buchholz. One would think that the star-studded UFC 118 card would have drawn more interest than the less-than-stellar UFC 109 card, which was headlined by Randy Couture taking on Mark Coleman. But the UFC 116 card, featuring the return of current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, only drew 1.3 million viewers for their two fights, which saw Ricardo Romero armbar Seth Petruzelli and Brendan Schaub TKO’ing Chris Tuchscherer.

Clearly, the interest in the main Pay-Per-View card didn’t play nearly as big of a role as many thought it would in attracting viewers to see the prelims. I’m moderately surprised at this, but it’s not exactly a revelation either. I think fight fans are judging these “Prelims Live” specials on the strengths of the actual fights, not on their interest in the fights to come. Fight fans are far more familiar with Melvin Guillard and Mac Danzig than with Andre Winner or Ricardo Romero. Also, the quality of the initial fight likely had a huge effect on people either staying plugged in or switching the channel: the Lentz vs. Winner bout in particular was very boring, and I can see how many fight fans would have switched to other programming without even giving the second fight a chance.

And at the end of the day, I think we all know what the problem here is: these are preliminary fights, they’ll never do that good in the ratings. I’m not trying to discredit any of the talented fighters that fight on the UFC’s prelims, but these “Prelims Live” specials lack the appeal of a Fight Night Live card, since they’re smaller parts of a bigger whole and not an event in and of itself. I don’t ever see these “Prelims Live” specials doing so badly that Spike nixes the idea entirely, but I don’t see them breaking any records either.

That is, of course, unless the UFC gives us preliminary fights like Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung, which was a preliminary fight showcased by their sister-promotion the WEC. It’s a fight which is in serious talks for Fight of the Year candidacy. A great fight is a great fight, and a great preliminary fight can overcome the stigma of being a preliminary fight. But honestly, have we really seen a can’t-miss preliminary fight in the entirety of these “Prelims Live” specials? Don’t give us mid-level but sometimes virtually unknown fighters fighting mostly good but sometimes incredibly boring fights and then wonder why your ratings are so up-and-down. Unless the UFC puts some real effort behind making the preliminary fights worth watching in their own right, they should be satisfied with whatever number they get.

And what about you, fans and friends? Why do you think the “Prelims Live” specials continue to fluctuate in terms of ratings?