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Transcript of CBS Executive Kelly Kahl’s interview with Fanhouse

By Zach Arnold | November 6, 2009

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INTERVIEWER: “Kelly, we’re just a couple of days away now from a huge event on CBS. I want to ask you an interesting question, um, October 4th, 2008, obviously that was the last CBS event uh, MMA event on CBS, Kimbo Slice-Seth Petruzelli, after everything that went on on that night, did you ever think that we’d see MMA back on CBS?”

KELLY KAHL: “Yeah, we always hoped we would. Uh, it was a tough night and um you know obviously not the way we’d hope it would go, although that being said we still got a pretty good audience there. But when Elite went down, we kind of began the process of you know trying to get back on but we had to find the right partner first and I think we’ve found it with Strikeforce.”

INTERVIEWER: “And when this fight was first announced, um, I guess the rumors or it was pretty much known that it was going to air on Showtime. How did it end up airing on CBS?”

KELLY KAHL: “Well, we essentially have a partnership with Showtime, they’re part of CBS, and obviously with uh Strikeforce so we’re all talking all the time and um I think when it became apparent that we could get Fedor uh we just collectively decided it would make you know a great way for CBS to get back into MMA uh in prime-time.”

INTERVIEWER: “Now you’ve been asked this question a lot in the last few weeks, few months, how do you promote Fedor to the masses and how are you going to get the mainstream sports fans to know about him? Do you think that CBS, Showtime, Strikeforce did a good enough job now that we’re here two days away from the fight of letting the people know who this guy is and what he can do?”

KELLY KAHL: “I do, I think the criticism certainly over the last few days has died on a little bit, um, we promoted this kind of the way we can promote any special and I think people didn’t see as many promos four weeks ago and they were upset but I think if they’ve looked in the last couple of days, uh, in the last week where we heavy things up as we get closer to the event, uh things like the 360 show, radio appearances, uh, and not to mention just the promos themselves on CBS uh we had a lot of football last week we had the guys at the Bears game, uh we had promos all throughout prime-time this week, we’re going to hit the heck out of it in College Football this Saturday, so I think we’ve done a really good job.”

INTERVIEWER: “What’s the thought process behind just really promoting that fight and not really touching the under card fights because as you know MMA’s different than boxing, right? Fans tune into the fourth fight as much they want to see the main event.”

KELLY KAHL: “Well, I think real MMA fans are you know to begin with I think real MMA fans were aware of this event and they know who’s on it and if you weren’t aware of the event and who was on the card, you’re probably not a real big MMA fan so um we do in terms of expanding the audience wanted to hit the top of the card to start with and that you know starts with Fedor and Brett. Uh, we have this week started promoting Jake and um Mayhem uh in the promos and you’ve seen that the last few days trying to expand the base again as we get closer so um you know it’s just a matter of you are promoting to the mainstream, you’re promoting your headliners, but we are trying to dig down a little as we get closer.”

INTERVIEWER: “Is this do or die for MMA on CBS? I mean if worse case scenario, the numbers aren’t that great, is it possible that we won’t see MMA on CBS for the foreseeable future?”

KELLY KAHL: “Well, we’re hoping it’s the start again, we you know this has all been a process and the process is hopefully leading towards where we have you know regularly scheduled shows. Um, we learned a lot with Elite and we’re happy to be getting back here with Strikeforce. Um, the good news is you know we’ve sold out all the advertising time and uh you know the bar for success on a Saturday night really isn’t all that high so if we can improve say our male demographics a little bit that will be a success.”

INTERVIEWER: “Now in terms of the broadcast, can fans expect anything different from the Elite XC shows? Did you learn anything that you’d like to change this time around?”

KELLY KAHL: “I think we learned with each show, I think I’m remarkably proud of our broadcasts and I think we did a great job I think it’s a first-quality production, I love our announce team uh I do think we learned um to you know try to pick up the pace of the shows we went along a little bit and I think you’ll see that here, you know, the Showtime guys do first-rate production in terms of the packages and um I’m you know like I said we try to get a little better with each show but I am very confident we’re going to deliver a very high-quality show here.”

INTERVIEWER: “Now why does this fall under the CBS Entertainment banner, not CBS Sports?”

KELLY KAHL: “Part of it is it’s just where it kind of comes in the door, in this case because it’s in prime-time, that’s starts with Entertainment. Sports tends to be you know weekend, weekend day time, um so this uh all the MMA um people who came in tended to come through the Entertainment division. Also it’s just easier because Showtime already has a unit up and they’re already producing MMA, it just makes a lot more sense. Our sports guys are great, but they’re you know busy most of the year with NFL football, with golf, with college basketball, college football, they don’t have crews just you know ready that can break off and do this so uh they support us and they’re great and we absolutely listen to what they have to say, we’ve listened to their advice, they’re pros but we feel great having the Showtime guys produce these fights for us.”

INTERVIEWER: “Now UFC President Dana White loves to talk about the fact that uh Scott Coker and his staff at Strikeforce aren’t running the show any more, it’s now a [Showtime] deal where they’re kind of calling the shots in terms of matchmaking. Um, I’d like to get your thoughts on that and also how much of a hand do you have in the matches that air on CBS?”

KELLY KAHL: “Um, well I can’t speak to that, I I I do know it’s a partnership uh between Showtime and Scott but I think everybody really defers to Scott, Scott’s the man when it comes to MMA, he’s been doing it a long time, everyone respects Scott Coker. Um, so what Scott says carries an awful lot of weight with us and I would say you know Scott certainly talks to us about what he’s thinking before we put the press release out about the fights, but at the same time you know there’s yet to be a point where we called Scott and said ‘What are you thinking here'” you know, he’s given us a first-class card and there’s you know there’s no debating that.”

INTERVIEWER: “You’ve been at CBS for several years, now, right?”

KELLY KAHL: “14.”

INTERVIEWER: “14, so, I’m assuming at some point, you might have run into Dana, had a meeting, have you guys ever been pitched the idea of UFC back in the day while you were at CBS?”

KELLY KAHL: “Uh, we’ve talked to just about every MMA promoter out there including Dana and UFC.”

INTERVIEWER: “Was it ever close to happening?”

KELLY KAHL: “It’s just uh you know in getting back in, we had to kind of choose what we decided what was the best deal and in this case um you know we ended up with Strikeforce and um you know UFC does a great job, they’re a great business and they’re really smart businessmen so um you know they do a great job but we’re going to try to do a great job too.”

INTERVIEWER: “All right, we obviously you have a huge event coming up on Saturday night, uh, are you expecting given the characters involved this is the best fighter in the world, this is our Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, whatever you want to call him, are you expecting to have your highest ratings yet?”

KELLY KAHL: “Again, we just you know we try to do a little better than our typical Saturday night average. Uh, yeah, it’s a real question mark. I I I we hope for high ratings. I think the potential here is we should really have every MMA fan in the country watching this, uh, on the other hand you know the question is we don’t know how many people know about Fedor, uh, outside the MMA hardcore fans so um if we can peak a little interest hopefully we can make that into you know a slightly bigger audience than just MMA fans but um that’s the goal and we’ll see what happens.”

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

10 Responses to “Transcript of CBS Executive Kelly Kahl’s interview with Fanhouse”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    This guy is full of it in a few cases here.

    1) He’s trying to play it off that MMA being treated as entertainment and not a sport isn’t a big deal. It’s a very big deal. It’s a very big deal for every West Coast viewer who can go online and find out the results ahead of time before they can watch it. And his excuse about sports being a weekend thing? THIS EVENT IS ON A SATURDAY!!! Not to mention the World Series on FOX was on during the week a lot… And that still fell under FOX SPORTS!!

    2) When it comes to having a deal with MMA… Wish he would just be honest and say the truth… Which is basically…. The UFC would cost us money… Strikeforce we basically get for free because they have no worth right now.

    One thing that he did say, and shows some knowledge of MMA… Is that he questions how many people know who Fedor is. Sounds like a lot is banking on this one card. That’s a lot of pressure compared to signing a multi-card deal with a network.

  2. Zack says:

    “It’s a very big deal for every West Coast viewer who can go online and find out the results ahead of time before they can watch it.”

    This is the same for every single Ultimate Fight Night card as well. Settle down Beavis.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    The main difference being that SpikeTV didn’t have the ability to do it the way their feed works. That might have switched, I’m not sure, but it was the case for a few years.

    CBS has the option and isn’t doing it. It’s also playing after midnight in certain markets….

  4. Zack says:

    You think it’s easier to move time slots on CBS than Spike?

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    From a technical aspect…. One is impossible… The other one is possible. So yes, it is easier. SpikeTV doesn’t have the technical ability to do so last time I checked. As in even if they wanted to, their network isn’t set up like that.

    CBS’s is. They have change the feeds at any point based on the programming they have. They can do a staggered feed for sitcoms. They can do a live feed for the entire US for sports or the President speaking.

  6. Zack says:

    You’re saying Spike TV doesn’t have the capability of playing something live on the east and west coasts at the same time? Interesting.

  7. Detective Roadblock says:

    Where are Loretta Hunt and Josh Gross with their big fight week hit pieces?

    I thought for sure they would do a story on SF and how they’re in bed with unsavory Russians, how there is a nontitle fight on TV tonight (wasn’t that a huge comaint of the PRIDE haters), how they booked a gimmick fight between the Brandon Veras wife and Randy Coutures ex, how they are using Herchel Walker as a publicity stunt and nothing on Antonio Silva and his steroids suspension?

    Anytime there is an annonymous rumor about UFC the week of a big fight they do a stop the presses alert. This should serve as a prime example and a reminder of what yellow journalist hacks those two are.

  8. brent says:

    meltzer is saying that UFC 104 is trendening towards 475k buys. thats quite impressive and at least 100k more than what alot of people thought. advertising pays.

  9. David M says:

    for those who said Fedor isn’t a star in Russia, his fight against Rogers is airing on 4 hour delay on Channel 1, a government run channel reaching 120 million homes.
    http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/fedor-rogers-airing-in-120-million-homes-in-russia-20780

  10. […] by being under the CBS/Showtime business model. There was a reason last week why I transcribed the interview Kelly Kahl did with Fanhouse. He talks a big game in terms of what CBS has done for Strikeforce in terms of promotion and either […]

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