UFC 94 replay wins key demographic, scores nearly two million viewers

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This past Saturday's UFC 94 replay on Spike TV was the highest-rated program among men ages 18-49 among all cable programs that aired on April 11.

Overall, the event replay, which went head to head with Showtime's presentation of "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz" in San Jose, Calif., drew a 1.4 household rating with an average audience of 1.9 million viewers.

Spike TV today announced the ratings information.

UFC 94 originally took place on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas and aired on pay per view. The headline bout featured UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre vs. lightweight title-holder B.J. Penn in a rematch of their original 2006 meeting, which St. Pierre won via close split decision. St. Pierre scored a fourth-round TKO to win the rematch, but the fight has since been overshadowed by Penn's complaints of St. Pierre's corner men "greasing" him with Vaseline between rounds.

UFC 94 also featured Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva, Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones, Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim, and Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida.

The UFC and Spike TV pitted the replay against Strikeforce's first official event on Showtime, which came a few months after Strikeforce acquired select assets, including more than 40 fighter contracts and the Showtime deal, from the parent company of the now-defunct EliteXC organization.

Although UFC President Dana White and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker have always had a publicly amicable relationship, the counter-programming could be a sign of things to come. The UFC and Spike TV have counter-programmed both Affliction events to date and many of EliteXC's past shows. Strikeforce will likely find itself in the crosshairs more often, as well, now that it plans to broadcast up to 15 events per year.

In addition to winning a key demo for the day, the April 11 UFC 94 replay also was the highest-rated program in its timeslot (on both network and cable TV) among men ages 18-34.

By comparison, HBO's live coverage of "World Championship Boxing: Winky Wright vs. Paul Williams," which also aired on April 11, drew 400,000 fewer viewers (1.5 million total) than the UFC 94 replay.

Ratings for the Strikeforce broadcast were not immediately available.

Spike TV, which first inked a partnership with the UFC in 2005, is available in approximately 98 million homes. Showtime, a premium (pay) cable channel, has approximately 16 million subscribers.