Dana White
Former TUF home announces three-hour Friday night block
As the new year approaches, MMA fans can be reasonably certain they'll be reading many stories just like this one in 2012.
Spike TV, the former cable home of the UFC – which will still air one more live event in the deal that expires at the end of 2011 – announced Tuesday it will counter-program against the series that helped put MMA on the mainstream map.
With "The Ultimate Fighter" moving to a new live format on FX on Friday nights as part of the UFC's deal with Fox, Spike will air a three-hour block of past episodes of the reality competition series that aired on Spike for 14 seasons over seven years. The 15th season of "The Ultimate Fighter" will debut on FX on March 2 with a two-hour season premiere episode, and Spike will go up against it with three hours of its own starting at 9 p.m. Eastern.
According to a release from Spike, which is owned by Viacom, Inc., dubbing itself "the recognized home of mixed martial arts on television," will showcase "the greatest episodes from the 14 seasons" of the show, and will also have themed editions that stem from fan participation on Facebook and Twitter. Spike said details on those themed editions will be announced later.
Earlier this month, Spike announced it will run counter-programming against the next UFC on Fox broadcast on Jan. 28. In Chicago earlier this month to announce the Fox card, UFC president Dana White responded the way he typically has over the course of the ultimately failed negotiations with Spike and the time since the Fox deal was announced in August.
"The funniest thing is, we didn't make the decision to not be on Spike," White said. "Somebody high up in Viacom let the biggest sports franchise in the last 50 years go. And they're acting mad at me? I didn't do it – they did it. They've got to do what they've got to do to program their network, and it is what it is."
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