It should come as no surprise that The Ultimate Fighter 16 has been overwhelmingly disappointing. The talented is unrefined at best and the personalities stereotypical. On top of that, the coaches Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin completely lack any dynamic that could draw viewers despite their supposed rivalry.
Throughout the season ratings have reflected the general lack of compelling television and last week was no different.
Episode 9 of TUF 16 drew a paltry 643K views. This was the second worst drawing episode of the season, only eclipsed by the 5th episode of this season. Additionally, even the season premier was the worst in series history.
Disregarding those incredible low points, season 16 hasn’t only seen terrible ratings. The first bump occurred immediately following UFC on FX 5. With the live event lead-in, the series topped 1M viewers. It also got a bump two weeks back with Julian Lane’s infamous “I just wanna bang, bro” and that bled into the following week.
The fan interested provided by the in-house drama seems to have worn think at this point.