The ratings are in for a night of fights this past Saturday, and once again, the UFC has come out on top of Strikeforce. Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery averaged 308,000 viewers on Showtime. Meanwhile, Spike TV aired an episode of “UFC’s Ultimate Fights” which drew an average of 894,000 viewers to counter-act the Strikeforce show.
It should be noted that Showtime is currently available in 12 million homes, while Spike TV is available is 98.6 million homes. In that context, the numbers for Strikeforce aren’t as bad as they might originally appear to be.
The numbers that Strikeforce should be concerned about are the numbers of their most recent broadcast compared to the fight card that aired on Showtime in January. Strikeforce: Miami drew 517,000 viewers that saw title wins by Nick Diaz and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, as well as wins from Bobby Lashley and Herschel Walker. The numbers from Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery are down almost 41% from the numbers the drew in January.
The numbers are similar to, although less than the 341,000 viewers that tuned in for Strikeforce: Evolution that aired this past December. That show featured Cung Le vs. Scott Smith and a lightweight title unification bout between Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson.
