TUF 18 Episode 3: TV Ratings

Wednesday night’s edition of The Ultimate Fighter 18 drew an average of 639,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1.

That’s down 231,000 viewers from the previous week’s installment and makes it the least watched episode of the season so far. It’s now quite the lowest audience ever for an episode of the show, but it only avoids that dubious distinction by just 15,000 viewers.

So, things are back to looking bad for the show following the brief glimmer of hope that came with a solid rise in the ratings last week (which in hindsight may have been due to a good amount of advertising during FOX’s NFL coverage which didn’t occur this week).

It’s unfortunate as it’s a fairly solid season of the show so far with the dynamic of having both male and female competitors in the house being interesting to watch play out and the expected rivalry between coaches Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate heating up nicely.

Still, it’s pretty much the same old TUF format that we’ve seen for the previous 17 seasons so it’s difficult to get people energized to watch it again, and the fact that FOX Sports 1 just isn’t proving to be a ratings winner yet is undoubtedly also a real thorn in the show’s side.

TUF 18 Ratings So Far:

TUF 18 Episode 1: 762,000 viewers
TUF 18 Episode 2: 870,000
TUF 18 Episode 3: 639,000

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.