After weeks of speculation Dana White confirmed tonight that ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality show is moving from FX to the soon-to-be-launched FOX Sports 1 channel.
TUF 18 will be the first to be broadcast on FS1 with Cat Zingano confirmed as a coach opposite Ronda Rousey following her TKO win over Miesha Tate at the TUF 17 finale earlier in the evening.
The present series of TUF was given every chance to be a success on FX, with high profile coaches in Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen plus favorable scheduling on Tuesday nights at 9pm, but despite the ratings being an improvement on the previous season, they never reached the level experienced during the show’s run on Spike TV.
That’s more than likely why the show is now going to move on, though it may be argued that this has been done in an attempt to put all the UFC’s programming under the one roof so that it’s easier to find, with a string of live shows, ‘UFC Tonight’ and a plethora of other UFC related content also heading to FS1 when it launches in August.
As I’ve said all along though, I feel it would have been better if TUF stayed on FX since it’s a great way to tap into the mainstream market rather than just the dedicated sports crowd, and I’d anticipate the ratings for the show will take a significant drop over on FS1.
