"Strikeforce: Miami" ratings: 517,000 Showtime viewers deliver 52 percent ratings increase
This past weekend's "Strikeforce: Miami" event, which featured two title fights and the promotional debuts of WWE/TNA star Bobby Lashley and former NFL great Herschel Walker, drew 517,000 viewers on Showtime.
The event took place on Jan. 30 at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla.
A replay of "UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez," which Spike TV aired to counter-program the Strikeforce show, drew 2.2 million viewers and was the top-rated cable program of the day among men 18-34 and men 18-49.
Showtime is available in approximately 12 million homes. Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes.
Compared to Strikeforce's most recent event, "Strikeforce: Evolution" in December, ratings for "Miami" were up sharply. As MMAjunkie.com previously reported, the Dec. 19 event, which featured Scott Smith vs. Cung Le and a lightweight title-unification bout of Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson, drew just 341,000 viewers.
"Strikeforce: Miami" earned an additional 176,000 viewers for ratings increase of 51.6 percent.
This weekend's event, which marked Strikeforce's Florida debut, featured Nick Diaz's first-round TKO of Marius Zaromskis for the first-ever welterweight title and women's lightweight champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos' successful title defense over Marloes Coenen.
The event aired live on the East Coast and via three-hour delay on the West Coast at 10 p.m.
Spike TV's replay of UFC 107, which originally aired on pay-per-view on Dec. 12 with UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn's win over Diego Sanchez, aired in the same timeslot.
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17774/strikef ... crease.mma