The story has been told over and over again by either Dana White or Lorenzo Fertitta on the tough time the promotion was enduring before the explosion of publicity after the first installment of their reality series. After purchasing the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001 from the original founders, Station Casinos executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta created the entertainment parent entity Zuffa, LLC and made their longtime friend and business partner Dana White President of the promotion as they looked to turn around the failing young promotion to make a profit as well as recreate the sport's image. Even after getting official sanctioning in the important combative sport affiliated state of Nevada, the sport endured a serious lack of credibility being looked down upon by accredited sports figures and analysts in boxing and news sources like ESPN. With the promotion on familiar grounds looking at bankruptcy and many athletes possibly losing their means of making a living, Lorenzo Fertitta told White to look for a potential buyer to take the failing investment off their hands, but soon changed his mind looking to take on the rising problems that were being endured. Having to pay fighters out of their own pockets using funds from their casino empire, the Fertitta's and White looked to break into the mainstream entertainment when the idea came up of setting up a competition that would be shown as a reality show watching the competitors live together and fight each other.
After being turned down by multiple networks, the UFC brass finally found a willing network to host the reality series by offering to pay the high costs themselves. The new reality series The Ultimate Fighter or TUF debuted in January 2005 on the young network SpikeTV which featured sixteen prospects in the sport competing at either 205lbs of 185lbs to win a six-figure contract with the UFC and become the first to hold the title of Ultimate Fighter. The fighters would be divided into two teams with four of each weight class representing either team which are coached by big name fighters already competing in the promotion. The first season alone featured competitors that are well known today in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts with Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Mike Swick, Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, Nathan Quarry, and Chris Leben. The first two coaches themselves were already big names in the sport with two future Hall of Famers with Randy Couture coaching Team Couture against Chuck Liddell coaching Team Liddell. An added bit of competition was included as both Couture and Liddell were not just coaching opposite each other, but would meet in a rematch with Couture defending his 205lb title. The primetime slotted show met with great ratings attracting a demographic interested in combative sports and those who were attracted to the reality element that had exploded during that time with shows like The Real World. The entire show culminated in a finale that was the stage of arguably the greatest and most important fight in UFC history. The first of the two bouts to end the competition was the 185lb bracket between two future contenders Sanchez and Florian. The 185lb bracket was quickly brought to an end as Diego Sanchez became the first to earn the title of Ultimate Fighter of any bracket with a Rnd1 TKO. The second bout to finish off the tournament was an epic back-&-forth brawl in the 205lb finals as future champion Forrest Griffin took on Stephan Bonnar. The bout between these two towering Light heavyweights was bloody, brutal, and one of the most exciting bouts ever in the history of both the UFC and TUF as many saw the final decision as a toss-up. The bout was so exciting and entertaining, that both the Fertitta brothers and Dana What agreed to award both Griffin and Bonnar with six-figure contracts. The excitement that culminated in the end resulted in an extension of the deal between SpikeTV and the UFC to continue showcasing the reality competition on the same station through 2011.
This longstanding deal has lead to now thirteen seasons of action that has resulted in eighteen winners of the reality competition series. Among those winners, three of them had gone on to become UFC champions, while three others had gone on to compete and fall short of claiming titles themselves against champions. As the show is currently showcasing the thirteenth installment of the series, and is currently going through the selection process of the fourteenth installment that is scheduled to debut later this year featuring either or both Featherweight and Bantamweights, the deal struck that extended the hosting on SpikeTV through 2011 is now reaching its end. Currently this thirteenth season of the series has met with some of its lowest ratings in some time even with a polarizing figure like now former Heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar acting as one of the two coaches. The show has maintained its usual time slot as it has bounced back-&-forth starting at 8pm, 9pm, or even 10pm PT. Currently the show begins at 9pm PT on Wednesday nights, which is no real hassle for fans at that time. For some reason though, this season seems to be lacking that proper promotional output on SpikeTV or on any other channel for this installment. At this time, UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs Shields is helping to promote the longtime highly anticipated main event at UFC 129: St. Pierre vs Shields where current reigning 170lb champion Georges St. Pierre look to defend his title against a dangerous threat in contender Jake Shields. This is the fifth installment of the specifically focused countdown series that primarily follows fighters in highly anticipated bouts whether for titles or grudge matches. This fifth installment however has also seen a lack of proper promotion and has received a questionable time slot being shown at 12am PT on its first night. Normally, UFC Primetime has been shown immediately after the newest episode of TUF as a lead in having shown what was hopefully an interesting bout on the reality show. This time however, the countdown show was chosen to be delayed by SpikeTV so that they could showcase their own new reality series Coal which follows a group of coal miners into their profession. Before this the network usually put their own shows on hold for the three weeks the countdown show would be on, but the network has chosen otherwise. This decision is a serious contributing factor to the reason why this installment of the countdown series has had its worst ratings yet with just around 600k.
A similar situation occurred before this when the event UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs Davis was going to be aired live on SpikeTV as a free event the UFC usually puts on a few times a year on the network. The event was promoted to be shown live on television across the entire country, but a few days before the event, SpikeTV decided to force a delay for those in the PT time zone for three hours. Dana White received complaints from fans through Twitter asking why the event was being delayed for fans on the west coast, but he could only relay that this is a decision SpikeTV makes since it is shown on their network and that he did not know why this decision was made. This helped add to speculation from fans and media sources on whether or not the UFC was indeed going to renew their deal with SpikeTV to continue showcasing the TUF series and free UFC Fight Night events on the same network they had for years, whether they would sign with a new network which is prompted more after a last minute deal with IonTV was struck to allow fans to see three free preliminary bouts for UFC 125: Resolution, or if the UFC is actually looking to create their own network. Currently the UFC has a deal running UFC On Demand where fans can watch archived footage of fights and events past and monthly deals on exclusive footage. Their is plenty more footage to be showcased with the UFC's parent company Zuffa, LLC owning the rights to footage of past fights and events from the now dissolved Pride FC, owning the rights to footage from the now fully absorbed World Extreme Cagefighting, and now owning rights to the newly acquired promotion Strikeforce. There is also plenty of footage showcased from all the seasons of TUF on the shows website with every episode and every individual fight. Whether the UFC's parent company is indeed looking for a new host for their reality series and free live events is unknown and also whether or not they are seriously considering creating their own network. Speculation continues to mount as SpikeTV has not been acting very fan friendly.
An added factor to why ratings for both this season of TUF and the current running UFC Primetime, is unfortunately that the amount of people that can even pay their bills to see the shows they want has gone down in the United States. Many people in America who are struggling with keeping up with their bills have to decide which of them are the most important, and the ones pertaining to means of entertainment are not really at the top of the list in importance. Many fans must sacrifice being able to watch the series and countdowns so they can save up to afford being able to purchase the very PPV events that both shows lead up to. Not all fans can afford to see every fight, even if they are on "free" television.
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