I don’t watch much television these days. I definitely don’t have many shows that I watch on a weekly basis. If I didn’t have a hard on for MMA, the Ultimate Fighter would not be on that short list.
Don’t be fooled by the recent ratings jump. The show’s ratings have steadily declined season-to-season. The show has problems. The talent pool dries up every year putting increasingly more inexperienced fighters in the limelight. The drama has run its course. There’s only so many things that can happen in a house full of alcohol-fueled meatheads.
But this isn’t an article describing the ailments of TUF. I want to see changes. I want to like watching this show. I think the show would be much improved with the following 5 changes:
1. Get rid of the house. Just let it go. Put them up in hotels. Put them up in apartments. Hell, continue putting them in a house. Just stop showing me what goes on there. I don’t care to watch mentally unstable guys get drunk and lose their s—. I’ve had enough friends with the same problems. Plus you’re putting the health of other fighters in danger.
2. Focus on the fighter’s backgrounds. Without having to devote so much time to the house, you can focus on where these guys came from. You can talk about their families, their upbringing. Make me interested in Junie Browning. Why does he have so many emotional problems? Humanize these characters for me. Separate them from every guy at the bar wearing Affliction and Tapout gear.
3. Stop being a hypocrite. Dana, cut it out. First off, don’t tell me EliteXC disgusts you and then turn around and let a guy who assaulted his housemate with a glass STAY ON THE SHOW. Second, don’t tell these guys they let alcohol in the house because they’re “men” and “should be able to handle it.” If that’s the case, why can’t they handle a phone call to their families? Video games? Books? TV? If you’re going to continue putting these guys in a house, just let them live semi-normal lives. Or take away the alcohol if you want to keep them in a mililtary style barracks. Honestly, professional fighters shouldn’t be drinking during a training camp anyway.
4. Show us more technique. Season 1 had an interesting “move of the week” type bit. Bring it back in a more subtle way. Show Nogueira or Mir breaking down techniques to the fighters. Educate the casual fan.
5. Build up your main event. I can’t stress this one enough. The blogosphere went on a tangent about the lack of buzz for Griffin/Jackson. While the show ended up with fine numbers, I think the UFC could have made much more money. I think a great idea would be to have 30-60 second spots coming in/out of commercial breaks where one of the coaches talks about their career. Why didn’t Rampage talk about his fights with Wanderlei Silva? Why didn’t he talk about the Chuck fight? Why didn’t people find out who Quinton Jackson is? The same thing goes for Minotauro Nogueira in this season. To the average fan, Nogueira is just some guy from Brazil who is friends with Anderson Silva. You have 45 minutes a week. You can afford 3-5 minutes building up your New Year’s Eve main event.