New York, NY, December 8, 2009 – Spike TV’s telecast of “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” live finale on Saturday, December 5 was the most watched final episode in the 10 seasons of the TUF franchise, peaking with 5.2 million viewers and a 5.9 rating with Men 18-34 for the Kimbo Slice-Houston Alexander fight. The over 5 million viewers were the most to watch a live UFC fight in 2009.
KIMBO SLICE DRAWS 5.2 MILLION VIEWERS FOR HIS FIRST LIVE FIGHT IN THE UFC ON SPIKE TV
Most Watched “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale In Franchise History And Biggest Audience For A Live UFC Fight In 2009
New York, NY, December 8, 2009 – Spike TV’s telecast of “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” live finale on Saturday, December 5 was the most watched final episode in the 10 seasons of the TUF franchise, peaking with 5.2 million viewers and a 5.9 rating with Men 18-34 for the Kimbo Slice-Houston Alexander fight. The over 5 million viewers were the most to watch a live UFC fight in 2009.
Overall, the three-hour fight card drew 3.7 million viewers, a 2.4 household rating, a 4.6 in Men 18-34 and was the most-watched show on cable with Men 18-34 and Men 18-49 for the day.
“The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” live finale was the third most-watched UFC fight card ever.
Roy “Big Country” Nelson was named “The Ultimate Fighter” after knocking out Brendan Schaub with a devastating right hand to the head in the first round of their main event bout. Earlier in the night, Slice won a unanimous three-round decision over Alexander for his first victory in the UFC.
Season 10 of Spike TV’s signature franchise, “The Ultimate Fighter,” was the most-watched ever for the series, bucking the common trend of a show’s ratings to erode over time. The series drew an average of 3.4 million viewers as compared to an average of 2 million viewers for the previous nine seasons.
Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com