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Last night's airing of "UFC Primetime" on Spike TV, focused on the training of George St. Pierre and Dan Hardy, drew a total audience of 1 million viewers. That's presumably combining the ratings for both back-to-back airings last night (such as 600,000 first airing, 400,000 second airing).
It drew a 1.1 rating among men 18-34 (325,000) and a 1.0 rating among men 18-49 (537,000). It was the most watched episode in the series' history.
Keller's Analysis: Those are good numbers for Spike. It was a curious strategy to air the same 30 minute episode back-to-back last night. Without a breakdown of how each airing did in the ratings - which I hope to get info on tomorrow - it's tough to know how smart it was, but the net effect of reaching 1 million viewers is definitely worth bragging about. It bodes well for interest in this fight. It's a good contrast of personalities. Hardy definitely can sell a fight with his young bravado and confidence bordering on cockiness, while GSP is... well GSP, the most charming yet supremely confident representative of the sport of MMA. One person who is involved in TV production commented to me that it looked like they cut back on the budget of the show compared to previous versions.
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