SF: Rousey vs. Kaufman scores highest rating of 2012

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30302/strikeforce-rousey-vs-kaufman-ratings-event-scores-showtime-best-ratings-of-2012-events.mma
Ronda Rousey's star continues to rise, and her latest appearance scored Showtime its highest Strikeforce ratings of 2012.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today learned from industry sources that this past weekend's "Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman" averaged 530,000 viewers on Showtime.

Additionally, a peak viewership of 676,000 tuned in during the night's main event, which saw Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Rousey defeat former title holder Sarah Kaufman in just 54 seconds.

"Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman" took place this past Saturday, Aug. 18, at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. The main card aired on Showtime following Showtime Extreme-televised prelims.

The viewership numbers include the both the live broadcast, which is distributed to Showtime's East-coast viewers, as well as the same-day replay, which represents the tape-delayed broadcast to Strikeforce's West-coast subscribers.

Showtime officials said that when a Sunday-morning replay of the event is considered, a total of nearly 900,000 viewers watched the event.

Strikeforce's five 2012 events have now averaged 445,800 viewers. By comparison, Strikeforce's eight 2011 "Arena Series" events drew an average audience of 521,375 viewers on Showtime.

The Showtime ratings for Strikeforce "Arena Series" shows since 2011 include:

"Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva" (February 2011): 741,000 viewers
"Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum" (June 2011): 624,000
"Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson" (July 2011): 571,000
"Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" (January 2011): 561,000
"Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman" (August 2012): 530,000
"Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley" (April 2011): 528,000
"Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey" (March 2012): 472,000
"Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final" (May 2012): 463,000
"Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal" (December 2011): 460,000
"Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy" (July 2012): 420,000
"Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson" (March 2011): 412,000
"Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine" (January 2012): 344,000
"Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov" (September 2011): 274,000

Shocking. That card was weak sauce. Underestimated the casual viewer trending on Rousey on his one.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Shocking. That card was weak sauce. Underestimated the casual viewer trending on Rousey on his one.

Same here. I was surprised. Only other "name" on the card was Jacare. Was it timing? Wasn't much else on that night. I for one could care less about pre-season football.

Could be. I know I only streamed the last two fights on my cell phone at the bar and all my usual mma posse were doing other things.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Could be. I know I only streamed the last two fights on my cell phone at the bar and all my usual mma posse were doing other things.

I didn't even know anyone else that was aware there were fights going on. How the hell did you stream fights on your phone?

My phone has internet with unlimited data so I just frontrowdotsports't it.

wow the 2 highest rated events of the year for SF have been ROusey vs Kaufman and Rousey vs Tate

both beat the GP Finals , wow

GDPofDRC wrote:

My phone has internet with unlimited data so I just frontrowdotsports't it.

I didn't know it would have the right kind of flash or java or whatever needed to do that.

Birdofthad wrote:

wow the 2 highest rated events of the year for SF have been ROusey vs Kaufman and Rousey vs Tate

both beat the GP Finals , wow

Yeah that is crazy. I kind of expected Tate vs Rousey to do well because they built that rivalry pretty good. But this latest card is more surprising.

wow Miesha Tate is trending weird?

I agree, this was a pretty bland card, had Jacare in a squash match and Tarec vs Bowling, Tate vs Kedzie and ROusey in a "tough" fight

Makes sense though, shit thats about on par with what UFC has been trying to get us to pay 60 bucks for the last couple of PPVs

Birdofthad wrote:

wow Miesha Tate is trending weird?

I agree, this was a pretty bland card, had Jacare in a squash match and Tarec vs Bowling, Tate vs Kedzie and ROusey in a "tough" fight

Makes sense though, shit thats about on par with what UFC has been trying to get us to pay 60 bucks for the last couple of PPVs

That Tate fight was actually on the prelims. I watched all the fights so I don't remember if it was Sayers vs Smith or the OSP fight that was on the main card. Maybe both lol

dude that Lamamba Sayers fight looked like 2 people who had no clue what the hell they were doing lol

Birdofthad wrote:

dude that Lamamba Sayers fight looked like 2 people who had no clue what the hell they were doing lol

Smith looked huge. It was kind of a sloppy fight.

OU wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

dude that Lamamba Sayers fight looked like 2 people who had no clue what the hell they were doing lol

Smith looked huge. It was kind of a sloppy fight.

Yeah Smith did look big. Weird stance, and a little stiff, but he looks like a player.

Def not a big name card, ratings clearly point to Rhonda's rising star power. Proving me wrong on the staying power of SF.

I don't think she alone though is enough to prove you wrong at all when much better SF and MMA important cards drew far worse. This points more to her being trendy in the right ways I think and staying away from Santos will be key to keeping that star shining furiously bright.

Well, since i've been hearing people on other forums acting like Rousey has reached Gina levels of popularity, which she hasnt...i say this is only a great rating because it's their highest of the year. It would have been nothing special before SF got lamed out by the purchase and their ratings started to tank.

GDPofDRC wrote:

I don't think she alone though is enough to prove you wrong at all when much better SF and MMA important cards drew far worse. This points more to her being trendy in the right ways I think and staying away from Santos will be key to keeping that star shining furiously bright.

I disagree on her fighting Santos, I think she wins.

But even if you are right, her calling out Santos continues to grow her popularity(in the form of views), and u can be sure that that fight would have big viewership #'s.

If you are wrong about her beating Santos though, it is a significant setback to the business plan, which is why I think they are putting in place the barrier to that match happening. But it would have good numbers no doubt for that card. With Rousey, she is bringing in a portion of people on her own, a loss losses the majority of them though I imagine.

GDPofDRC wrote:

If you are wrong about her beating Santos though, it is a significant setback to the business plan, which is why I think they are putting in place the barrier to that match happening. But it would have good numbers no doubt for that card. With Rousey, she is bringing in a portion of people on her own, a loss losses the majority of them though I imagine.

Eh, they threw Gina in there with Cyborg, and it's looking pretty clear that Ronda is on a different level then Gina(and I thought Gina was a good fighter and actually gave Cyborg her biggest test).

Could they draw it out awhile to build hype, and keep that shining star of a fight there in everyones future view? Sure, but when have these little sister organizations ever done that? They rush right into the fight asap.

Not a Rousey fan but thought this was funny. It was posted by Manny.

I hope we get to see if Cyborg can bully Olympian in the clinch