DREAM.16 Ratings Fail to Impress in Primetime, But Hold Strong
by Dave Walsh on Sep 27, 2010 2:28 AM EDT
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Honestly, FEG and TBS have to be scratching their heads after their latest effort at MMA this weekend, as DREAM returned to primetime action for the first time in around a year. The last time DREAM saw primetime as a standalone show was in October of 2009. In 2009 DREAM only saw two primetime TBS slots, for those of you wondering why DREAM is not as lucrative for FEG, the answer really is lack of sponsors due to late night television spots throughout most of 2009 and 2010. Dynamite!!, was, of course a primetime affair.
Dynamite!! saw a two-hour peak of 16.7%, which was the most that FEG had seen for MMA since 2006. The early DREAM shows were given the primetime treatment on TBS, as this was the true successor to PRIDE, and failed to impress. DREAM.9, featuring a Bob Sapp fight saw a DREAM high of 16.2%, making many believe that Japanese MMA was starting to make a comeback. TBS was still hesitant to give DREAM a primetime slot unless they had something huge planned. So the next appearance of Bob Sapp at DREAM.11 was able to convince TBS to give DREAM a primetime slot, which drew a disappointing 12.7, showing some decline.
So cue up this weekend, where TBS believed they had a perfect storm situation for DREAM; a strong lead-in for DREAM.16 with Daiki Kameda fighting beforehand, which always draws huge ratings in Japan. There are very few draws as powerful as the Kameda brothers in Japan at the moment, so when you tack on Kazushi Sakuraba, Ikuhisa Minowa and a possible Norifumi Yamamoto fight (KID coming off of a win in May), they believed they had a formula for success. Sadly, Yamamoto's camp was unable to negotiate a deal they felt was fair with FEG, so KID's fight never surfaced. This made FEG pull out the big guns. Really big guns.
The ratings for Dynamite!! were huge for two reasons; Satoshi Ishii's MMA debut and Masato's retirement. To capitalize on this, FEG was able to come to terms with WVR and acquire Satoshi Ishii for a fight at DREAM.16. The problem? The fight was announced within days of the event, allowing FEG and TBS to do minimal promotion for the event. This all led to what turned out to be less-than-stellar ratings for DREAM 16, with Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Satoshi Ishii as a strong draw in the press, but only Ishii's second bout on Japanese soil and Ishii doing very little press since the loss in December.
The final ratings for the event were 11.9%, almost a full point decline from their last primetime event, DREAM.11. With FEG in dire straights, one has to wonder how this looks to investment bank PUJI as well as what this means for the TBS/FEG relationship.
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>DREAM.9, featuring a Bob Sapp fight saw a DREAM high of 16.2%, making many believe that Japanese MMA was starting to make a comeback.
D9 only got good ratings cause of the Kameda effect (KID too, but only a little bit). Funny how in America, MMA fans claim boxing is dying, while in Japan, MMA needs to hang on boxing’s coattails for viewers.
I think TBS is more concerned with Kameda only getting them 14.8%. That’s a bigger head scratcher for sure.
Well.
Daiki has never been the most popular of the three. I think a lot of people still look down at him because of the Naito fight.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
If FEG is going to continue to put on shows, they need to plug the shit out of Dynamite. They need to advertise and let the Japanese public know who’s going to be on the card a couple weeks in advance. They’re also going to need to get alot of star power as well. Unless UFC cuts him, they don’t have Akiyama for a ratings boost. They don’t have Masato anymore. FEG is going to really do serious work and get Kiyoshi Tamura (maybe against Zaromskis), Caol Uno, “Kid” Yamamoto, Hideo Tokoro (against someone he can beat), Satoshi Ishii, and maybe do a rematch between Minowa and Sakuraba. Then throw some quality featherweight and lightweight fights on there for the hardcore MMA fans. It might cost them a little bit more money then they’d like, but if they don’t then there might not be an FEG by the end of January 2011.
11.9 isn’t too bad. When you consider the only big draw they had on the card was Ishii. Saku isn’t as big as he use to be, and Minowa, and Aoki aren’t as big as some people seem to think.
Not as good as D.11 or D.9, but out of six or seven prime time shows they have had this is the 3rd best in terms of ratings. Not great, but not bad either.
No, all things considered, it isn't bad.
Like jinsoku mentioned above, the Kameda fight was even low.
I’d love to see the SKY numbers for DREAM.
A lot of people have to remember that DREAM does not air live on TBS. I’m pretty sure there were only three fights aired with the rest maybe shown in clips, as there was about an hour and a half time slot for what was a 4+ hour event.
Plus it aired live on HDnet and was available on the internet before it aired in Japan.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
i personally thought the card lacked a bit… shinya fight was kinda lame (aurelio doesn’t interest me as an opponent), i was bummed to see minowa lose, the sakuraba mayhem fight was awesome despite seeing saku fight at 1000 yrs old. it just felt weird for some reason.
we mutha fuckin thug life riders westsiiiide till we die
by cosmic fist technique on Sep 28, 2010 7:24 PM EDT reply actions
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