UFC: Silva vs. Irvin Was A Rating’s Smash
According to Adam Swift:
MMAPayout.com has learned that Saturday night’s broadcast of UFC: Silva vs Irvin on Spike TV drew a 2.1 rating (3.1 million viewers). In the key demographics, the broadcast delivered a 2.8 in M18-49, a 3.2 in Men 18-34, and a 2.0 in P18-49. The event was the highest rated program on television (cable or network) on Saturday in M18-34, M18-49, M25-34, and P18-34.
The broadcast peaked at 11:30PM for Silva-Irvin which drew 3.8 million viewers and a 4.9 rating in M25-34 and a 4.1 in M18-34
This event is the highest rated event that Zuffa has had on Spike TV in a while. Futhermore, it’s also safe to say that the Countdown Special for the Silva/Irvin showdown was a success as well…as it had 636,000 viewer’s. Which is up when compared to the countdown specials for UFC 86. The UFC won all across the board on this show…they had very good ratings…and this coupled with the performance by Anderson Silva…could officially put him in the superstar category now. Silva is rumored to fight on the UFC 88 card in Atlanta…the same card as Chuck Liddell…which further exposes him to more people.
The sole purpose of the Silva/Irvin card was to accomplish two things:
- Market Anderson Silva at the best pound for pound fighter in the world…and let him showcase it
- Counter-Programming against the debut of Affliction on PPV
Not sure how these numbers will impact Affliction’s PPV numbers with the advent of DVR/Tivo technologies. However, one has to assume that this show did deter some people from ordering the Affliction PPV.
