Dana White: TUF will be moving away from LIVE format
Posted on June 13, 2012, 12:18 PM by Anton Gurevich
UFC President Dana White has confirmed that The Ultimate Fighter reality series on Fuel TV will no longer be LIVE.
Aired LIVE on FX, recent season of The Ultimate Fighter recorded some of the worst numbers in series' history, and was heavily criticized by fans and the media for failing to improve the familiar TUF format. Speaking at UFC 150 (Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar II) press conference, UFC President spoke about the upcoming changes (Yahoo! report, via BloodyElbow.com):
Though UFC president Dana White said he loves the live version of "The Ultimate Fighter," the reality series will return to a taped format for its next season, he told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday.
...
...for the first time ever, the fights were live instead of taped. That led to some time overruns and an inability to develop story lines introducing the audience to the fighters.
The show will remain on Friday at 10 p.m. ET on FX, though White said if "this next season isn't up to the standards I expect, they promised me we can move it to Tuesday or Wednesday." He said casting for Season 16 would begin in three weeks and will debut in September. Season 2 on FX will feature welterweight fighters.
TUF 15 debuted on March 9th, featuring Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber as coaches and Jon Anik as host.
Comments
i really dont understand why they have it on friday. I have a life n like to go out on the weekends cause i study and go to school all week. I think they can should still have the live format, but have the fights on sunday. theres nothing on fx at 10pm on a sunday except for stupid movies
Dana already explained the problem with timeslots. When there are so many programs already in place and popular before the fox deal it is difficult to find a prime slot. Trust me Dana wants the number one slot.
I'm glad the UFC tried a different format. The first was always better but how do you know until you try something new.
One thing is for sure...Dana knows what fans want and will deliver changes.
I honestly believe if they had 2 fights a week instead of one would not only move the turney along quicker but make it more entertaining for the fans. I don't need to know that much about their back story till their closer too the finale.
That sucks. Just move the days but keep the live version.
To be honest I preferred the live format, felt more natural with the live fight and more training footage rather than scripted BS.
The problem is they want to come back to the scripted BS to get better ratings like they used to. I think what most people want is a real insight into the life of a fighter. See the sweat, strategies and drama but while training or before and after a fight. They could go deeper into that aspect imo instead of going Reality TV bullshit drama, alcohol, pranks an fights inside the house.
The live format sucked. Not because of the "missing house drama", but because the live fights added nothing to the excitement or intensity of the fights. It was dull, slow, and very poorly produced. Good fights are exciting regardless of whether or not they are taped or live. Where was all the "after fight emotion?" They barely showed anything.
Well don't you like going to live fights? I couldn't care less when someone screws up or creates an awkward moment or if the fighter gets to have a special scene. I don't care if they are taped fights just lose all the in house drama. I don't need clever editing to enhance the fights I actually find it more corny anyway. I like feeling like you're right there in the moment.
I quite enjoyed the live format mainly for the reason Keith said...i always enjoy seeing how other fighters train and the different training methods they used. But at the same time I do agree with Dana that more character development is needed...its partly why I like watching the Primtime shows so much, since they give you a lot more insight into the fighter's lives.
But like Lowkickdodger said, so long as they swap the drunken drama for the training footage and maintain a good level of footage from inside the house I think they'd be able to appeal to both casual MMA fans who might want some drama and MMA fans who like me want to see how they train.
Coaches, I wanna know who cannot! Any ideas for some coaches duudes?
Bob Sapp is available and so is Butterbean.
UFC contact presumed awarded of course