The Ultimate Fighter 22 premiered last night on FOX Sports 1 and featured the sixteen preliminary bouts between fighters from Europe and the United States.
According to Nielson sources, the show averaged 622,000 viewers (10p-12a ET) and peaked at 745,000 viewers in the 10:00-10:15 p.m. ET quarter hour. The debut episode was replayed later that night (1-3a ET) and scored an additional 66,000 viewers.
Last night’s episode of the reality show is the most-watched season debut on The Ultimate Fighter since the debut of The Ultimate Fighter 18 in the fall of 2013. The viewership was up 27 percent (622,000 vs. 490,000 viewers) from The Ultimate Fighter 21 debut in April and up 16 percent (622,000 vs. 536,000) over the debut of The Ultimate Fighter 20 in September of last year.
The +3 DVR numbers for last night’s episode will be available early next week and episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 22 will premiere next Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.