In what was built as the “knockout of the year” on The Ultimate Fighter 17 (Team Jones vs Team Sonnen) FX debuted the third episode to lower than expected ratings.
Episode three focused primarily on the fight between Uriah Hall and Adam Cella which ended in devastating fashion with Hall landing a spinning heel kick that put Cella in the hospital.
According to Nielsen sources, this devastating knockout placed The Ultimate Fighter 17 episode three at 28th overall for top 100 cable shows with 1.191m total viewers and a 0.7 in the adult 18-49 demographic.
This episode was a sizable drop from the debut episode but still a lot higher than previous season. A nice takeaway is that this episode of TUF actually drew more viewers from its lead-in FX movie which only did 1.08m total viewers and a 0.5 in the adult 18-49 demographic. It should be noted however that the UFC was up against some stiff competition that definitely impacted all of these numbers.
For example, Hardcore Pawn, which is in the same time slot, did it’s highest ratings ever with a 3.4m total viewers and a 1.2 in the adult 18-49 demographic. The Big Bang Theory also continued its dominance on Tuesdays in the same time slot with two episodes that eclipsed 3.6m total viewers and 1.6 in the adult 18-49 demographics. ESPN’s College Basketball game also did very respectable numbers landing 2.4m total viewers with a 0.8 in the adult 18-49 demographic.
Again, none of these numbers should really come as a surprise, but with all the build I am sure the UFC wasn’t thrilled with at least not matching last weeks 1.27m total viewers. The core male demographic number is also not available yet so hopefully that number boots the spirits a little bit.