A Shattering Premiere

Did anyone happen to watch the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter premiere, Wednesday night on SpikeTV? Well, apparently I wasn't the only one because SpikeTV captured millions of viewers. MMAJunkie.com posts, "The 4.1 million viewers (2.9 household rating) created the largest audience for a single "TUF" episode and a record for a season debut of any show in Spike TV history." Besides capturing over four million viewers, the premiere was number one in its time slot, and number one for certain demographics. The popularity of the debut is undoubtedly due to the presence of Kimbo Slice. Not only is this a good sign for Kimbo Slice, but more importantly for the UFC. On Saturday, the UFC has UFC 103: Franklin vs. Belfort. The same night, Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. has a boxing match on Pay-Per-View.

Boxing has been falling out of favor in recent years and MMA is starting to take over. It will be interesting to see if the UFC continues to rule the Pay-Per-View realm. Whatever the result may be, viewership is still increasing. The UFC is drawing in more power with the marketing Slice can bring to the organization. It will be interesting to see if the high viewership will continue throughout the season and into future Pay-Per-Views.