
Photo Courtesy of Esther Lin
Courtesy of cagepotato.com
Though the entire broadcast of “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” averaged 4.04 million viewers — placing it behind Kimbo-headlined CBS cards like “EliteXC: Primetime” (4.85 million viewers) and “EliteXC: Heat” (4.56 million viewers) — the ratings for Saturday night’s card shot up during the main event. MMA Weekly reports that 5.46 million home viewers were in attendance between 11:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., making the Emelianenko vs. Rogers match the ninth-most-watched fight in U.S. MMA history. You can check out this slightly outdated list to see where that puts them, but basically, the fight fell just 15,000 viewers short of Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill, and about 1.8 million viewers short of the reigning champion, Kimbo vs. James Thompson. Senior Executive Vice President of CBS Primetime Kelly Kahl was pleased with the numbers:
“I think its impressive we got 5 and a half million viewers to see a guy that to a good part of the country was an unknown. The young male demos speak to MMA’a increasing popularity. To go toe-to-toe with college football says something about the growth pattern of MMA.”
Not coincidentally, the 11:00-11:15 p.m. block coincides with the time when the UFC’s “Main Events” broadcast on Spike had just ended — so a large part of the bump could be attributed to MMA fans switching from one channel to another. (No word yet on how Spike did that night.) The question is: Can Fedor draw even better ratings in his next CBS appearance, now that he’s more of a known quantity? Will he ever approach — dare we say it — Kimbo-esque levels of stardom?Though the entire broadcast of “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” averaged 4.04 million viewers — placing it behind Kimbo-headlined CBS cards like “EliteXC: Primetime” (4.85 million viewers) and “EliteXC: Heat” (4.56 million viewers) — the ratings for Saturday night’s card shot up during the main event. MMA Weekly reports that 5.46 million home viewers were in attendance between 11:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., making the Emelianenko vs. Rogers match the ninth-most-watched fight in U.S. MMA history. You can check out this slightly outdated list to see where that puts them, but basically, the fight fell just 15,000 viewers short of Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill, and about 1.8 million viewers short of the reigning champion, Kimbo vs. James Thompson. Senior Executive Vice President of CBS Primetime Kelly Kahl was pleased with the numbers:
“I think its impressive we got 5 and a half million viewers to see a guy that to a good part of the country was an unknown. The young male demos speak to MMA’a increasing popularity. To go toe-to-toe with college football says something about the growth pattern of MMA.”
Not coincidentally, the 11:00-11:15 p.m. block coincides with the time when the UFC’s “Main Events” broadcast on Spike had just ended — so a large part of the bump could be attributed to MMA fans switching from one channel to another. (No word yet on how Spike did that night.) The question is: Can Fedor draw even better ratings in his next CBS appearance, now that he’s more of a known quantity? Will he ever approach — dare we say it — Kimbo-esque levels of stardom?
Related posts:
- EARLY RATINGS STRONG FOR STRIKEFORCE ON CBS
- FIGHT CAMP 360°: Fedor vs. Rogers
- Fedor Hurt His Hand, Broke His Nose, But Never Felt Like He Was in Danger
- BRETT ROGERS’ TRAINER WANTS SHOT AT OVEREEM
- “STRIKEFORCE AND M-1 GLOBAL: FEDOR VS. ROGERS” TO BE HELD AT SEARS CENTRE ARENA IN CHICAGO ON NOV. 7
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