SF Ratings, Sergei vs Barnett: A disaster.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/9/13/2423171/strikeforce-heavyweight-grand-prix-semi-finals-a-ratings-disaster

Strikeforce had been showing significant improvement in their ratings thus far in 2011, but that train seems to have come to a screeching halt with the release of the ratings for this past Saturday's Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals. After the first two Grand Prix events landed in the top two all time Strikeforce ratings slots (741k viewers for Fedor vs. Silva and 624k viewers for Overeem vs. Werdum), Saturday's show pulled in just 274,000 viewers. This made the event the second worst major Strikeforce event performance since the Showtime deal.

This was the product of a card that, while solid in terms of fights, featured almost no one of significant name value.

Josh Barnett may be a former UFC champion, but that was well before the "boom period" for the sport and he has had basically no fights of consequence for casual fans in years. Nobody but hardcore MMA fans know who Sergei Kharitonov is. Daniel Cormier is a rising star but he's also a nobody in terms of being a draw.

The Strikeforce brand is simply not big enough to be a draw on its own and Zuffa provided very little support in pumping up the event, instead (understandably) focusing their PR on the much bigger news of the upcoming Fox event and the news that Brock Lesnar would return and face Alistair Overeem.

So an under-supported card featuring no names for a promotion that is clearly being picked over by its "big brother" drew terrible ratings. I suppose that shouldn't be a shock. But seeing that Bellator was almost able to pull off the same numbers is still pretty amazing.

Combine this with the truly disastrous attendance, and u have your selves a dead org walking.

It seems like every fighter of value they have at the moment is either rumored to be going to the UFC or talking about going to the UFC.

i saw no adds for this event... NOTHING, it got buried with all the announcements they made leading up to it. seems like they wanted it to fail to be honest

OU wrote:

It seems like every fighter of value they have at the moment is either rumored to be going to the UFC or talking about going to the UFC.

Certainly the bigger selling names are. Not surprising they nabbed Mayhem b4 they nabbed Jacare.

Only truly big selling name that may be left b4 long is Gina.

Based off this rating, Im not expecting people to be scheduling their saturday night around Cormier vs Barnett.

Does Gil have enough drawing power to carry a card? Vs Masvidal? I'm skeptical.

That is the only big card left on the schedule during the Showtime contract. I see no chance of Showtime re-upping.

With Cormier's injury probably delaying the GP final even further. They should go ahead and just scrap it now. Both Josh and Cormier have bumped up their stock for the moment. Might as well just cash in on them in the UFC. Cormier may still be a MMA newbie but he is 32 years old and time is ticking.

killerofchicken wrote:

i saw no adds for this event... NOTHING, it got buried with all the announcements they made leading up to it. seems like they wanted it to fail to be honest

good call, all the recent headlines are UFC, this one got buried 6 feet deep.

Challengers cards bring in this type rating.

I was looking up Cormier's age, just to make sure. I noticed his nicknames for the first time lol
Fedor Emelianegro, The Black Emperor, Black Fedor

OU wrote:

I was looking up Cormier's age, just to make sure. I noticed his nicknames for the first time lol
Fedor Emelianegro, The Black Emperor, Black Fedor

LMAO


but watching him fight me and my buddies were reminded of an early Fedor... dude looks just like him haha

OU wrote:

With Cormier's injury probably delaying the GP final even further. They should go ahead and just scrap it now. Both Josh and Cormier have bumped up their stock for the moment. Might as well just cash in on them in the UFC. Cormier may still be a MMA newbie but he is 32 years old and time is ticking.

Even though the GP was severely compromised due to Reem getting pulled, I'd be pretty disappointed if they don't complete the tourney.

But if the injury extends past the showtime contract, would they be able to televise it? I guess it would make for a decent selling point for a TV deal with a new station. Or would it? I dunno, SF is just so lifeless.

These numbers don't surprise me. If the advertising for this event was a number, it would be -43. Only real MMA fans watched at all and many of them on a stream to boot.

Jake Shields headlining showtime card did worse....but not by much which is very very sad and indeed a disaster.

Well...so much for Zuffa helping Strikeforce get ratings and better gates.

Sure, they helped for cards headlined by Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem...though my powers of detection can't seem to find out why they did a better job promoting these shows[/sarcasm]