Over the weekend, the sport of mixed martial arts reached a milestone of finally being shown on a network television channel. NBC aired one of the new Strikeforce shows during its late, late night time slot which featured bouts from Cung Le and Duane Ludwig. While many fans thought the production and commentary was actually complimentary to the show, the time slot was a much bigger problem, and I had initially thought the show was going to be aired in the “I’m almost asleep, but not quite” hour. Instead, the show is aired during the “I’m dead asleep and never waking up” time of night.
What was Strikeforce thinking? The commentary and production are good enough to propel the show into a earlier time slot, and the fights are intriguing enough to get those people in the younger demographic to check out the show, but at 2-4 AM timeslots? The only reason I saw the show was due to the K-1 Yokohama event being aired in Japan around the same time. If I had not been awake, how would I have seen the show? I wouldn’t have unless I DVR’d it, but isn’t the entire aim here to bring fans into the sport? Hardcore fans were probably the only piece of the fanbase recording it, not new fans.
Steve Sievert also stated that the show is likely to be paid programming, which begs the question as to why Strikeforce would pay for a time slot that nobody is up to see. Next, it was revealed that the show wasn’t even being shown in all NBC affiliated markets, so the maximum exposure that the show could have received was much smaller than anticipated. Two more downfalls to the idea that Strikeforce could grab up some viewers from the network deal, and subsequently turn a bigger profit from it.
Unless the show moves to an earlier time slot, I really don’t see how this isn’t a complete waste of money. Even the IFL had to have had more exposure, and their numbers were pitiful during a timeslot that people could realistically stay awake. The only upside is that NBC may decide to move it up on their own, or use it to fill in for other shows. I guess we’ll see in the coming months if the show really has an impact. I’m going to stick with pessimism in this case.