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Report: Elite XC 10/4 CBS show drew same ratings as May event
By Zach Arnold | October 5, 2008
The good news? Ratings are back up. The bad news? It’s clear that the ratings are all contingent upon Kimbo Slice, with the only excuse available being that Gina Carano fought on both cards. Of course, they didn’t push her fights as the main events, either.
The ugly news? CBS nearly finished in last place to Law & Order re-runs on NBC.
Update: A CBS network executive comments on the ratings.
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Got about the ratings I figured it would get.
We need to find out what the young male demographic is. That is what CBS is pulling for.
Should be interesting to see what the fate of EliteXC is. They could be done by the end of the year, or they could be limping into 2009.
With the Kimbo bubble bursting, every EXC show on CBS is going to have similar ratings to the second show they did. That’s just not going to cut it. I figure they’ll have two events before CBS decides to cut them, and maybe only one if the next show has Kimbo and a significant drop in ratings.
EXC was also going up against MLB playoffs and college football.
I just watched the replay of last night’s “Boxing After Dark” broadcast on HBO. The doctor, the referee, the cornermen, and the athletic commission all failed to do their jobs in the Alfredo Angulo vs. Andrey Tsurkan fight. That fight clearly should have been stopped several rounds sooner than it was. Everyone involved is very lucky that Tsurkan is not dead, and I’m not saying that lightly. That is exactly the kind of fight that is most likely to result in a fighter’s death.
Gina is a draw, you can see it in the ratings breakdown. Her fight brought in about a million new viewers, and then viewership stayed relatively flat until the main event.
It’s not a bad number. It’s just probably not good enough given their dire situation.
That doesn’t automatically mean she is a draw. If the audience came for her and left after her fight, then that means she is a draw. Just like when Steven Austin or The Rock would be on RAW during the WWF/WCW War… The ratings would literally spike for them.
It does mean that it took a little while for a million to discover the show, but once they did, they stayed throughout, including Gina, Arlovski, & Shields…
“I just watched the replay of last night’s “Boxing After Dark” broadcast on HBO. The doctor, the referee, the cornermen, and the athletic commission all failed to do their jobs in the Alfredo Angulo vs. Andrey Tsurkan fight. That fight clearly should have been stopped several rounds sooner than it was. Everyone involved is very lucky that Tsurkan is not dead, and I’m not saying that lightly. That is exactly the kind of fight that is most likely to result in a fighter’s death.”
I think that you were possibly influenced by the commentary team. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I have a strong feeling that you wouldn’t have noticed it unless Lampley, Kellerman and Lewis hadn’t been harping on it.
Tsurkan was outgunned and I do think his corner should’ve/could’ve stopped it, but I just want to point out that it’s not the same when you’re in a corner and you have been in the gym with the guy and you may know what he can do, etc., etc.
I hate to sound somewhat cold about it, but boxing will always have unfortunate fights where someone took way too much head trauma. It’s the nature of the beast and it’s next to impossible to expect that every person in position will make the correct call all of the time.
Sorry to go off on a bit of a tangent, but I was watching last night and just knew that there were tons of people watching who would be parroting the commentary teams’ commentary.
For what it’s worth, I was there live when Mancini beat Duk Koo Kim. In person, it seemed that Mancini took virtually the same amount of head trauma that Duk Koo Kim took.
Is Gina Carano a draw? It’s very risky and short of making a deal with Affliction and getting Fedor, EliteXC doesn’t have another draw. It’s only risky because it hasn’t been done yet. But with Kimbo doing his inevitable Bob Sapp impersonation, she’s it. And Kelly Kahl of CBS said they were happy with the rating and there will be a fourth show. And again he repeated that those predicting the demise of EliteXC don’t see the whole picture.
No he went specifically out of his way to avoid answering the real question. Of course CBS will take the 4th show, that is not the important question. The important question is what happens when Elite runs out of funding after the November show and they can’t get any new financing?
They’re going to take over the company but they can’t say that yet. They don’t look at EliteXC as a $50M loss. They look at it as an investment. $50M is chump change to Viacom. That’s the big picture. They can’t do business with the UFC so this is their answer.
Makes no sense. Their ratings didn’t improve from the first Kimbo show. With him getting beat so quick, rating will only go down.
Long term, this will be a bust.
If CBS does want to purchase it (and I will predict it will still fail long term)….
They will likely infuse enough money into the company for one more CBS show… To see how it does post-Kimbo loss. If it sees a decrease in ratings, my prediction is that they will just let it die.
Were the ratings about equal for the Carano, Arlovski and Shields fights? Either that means Shields/Daley are draws or Carano and Arlovski aren’t drawing like they are supposed to.
Sigh.
The show starts off with 3.53 million viewers. Carano’s fight comes on and she brings in a million new viewers. In the next half hour segment, they actually lost viewers, which is absolutely terrible for a fight show, but most who came in for Carano stuck around the whole show.
Carano is a draw. There’s no way to interpret the numbers otherwise.
“They’re going to take over the company but they can’t say that yet. They don’t look at EliteXC as a $50M loss. They look at it as an investment. $50M is chump change to Viacom. That’s the big picture. They can’t do business with the UFC so this is their answer.”
MMA isn’t a passion for CBS. They’re in this for the business. If EXC drops in ratings for the next show, which it will, it’ll most likely do worse than the other major stations. This past show barely beat out NBC’s repeats. It doesn’t matter how much money Viacom has, they won’t keep a failing program around for very long.
They’re in this for the business. If EXC drops in ratings for the next show, which it will, it’ll most likely do worse than the other major stations.
Jesus christ, how many times has this sentence been repeated on here?
Jesus Christ(and his friend peter oohh)I thought I was going to get through a post with out reading crap from d.cap