Thursday will be an historic day for mixed martial arts, when CBS and Elite XC announce a deal that will bring the sport to network television for the first time.
Details of the deal, first reported by MMAjunkie.com, are sketchy, but is believed to be a four-fight deal that will begin in April.
Kevin Ferguson, the Internet street-fighting sensation known as Kimbo Slice, is expected to headline the first fight card on CBS from either Atlantic City, N.J. or the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Elite XC president Gary Shaw declined comment on Wednesday, but he has been bullish on the company’s future despite the fact it lives in the vast shadow created by the UFC.
The UFC had been attempting during the writer’s guild to reach a deal with CBS to put fights on, but had been unable to finalize a contract.
Elite XC already had a relationship with Viacom, which owns CBS, because Showtime is an investor in the company and has been broadcasting its fights since February 2007.
Viacom also owns Showtime.
The cards on CBS are expected to be two-hour shows broadcast on Saturday nights. The exact time slot is unknown, though it is likely to be something like 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Eastern time zone and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Pacific.
CBS Adds Martial Arts to Roster
CBS’ airing of the events is another example of the network repurposing programming that aired on its sister pay cable net Showtime.
John Consoli
FEBRUARY 28, 2008 -
Mixed martial arts is coming to CBS in prime time as part of a multi-year deal with ProElite in which the network will televise four live, two-hour MMA events per year.
The network will air the events, produced by ProElite’s EliteXC fight division, on Saturday nights. It is another move where CBS is taking programming that originally aired on its sister pay cable network Showtime. CBS recently began airing the Showtime drama Dexter. Showtime has been televising EliteXC live MMA events since last year. These events will continue to air on Showtime, in addition to CBS.
Also part of the deal, CBS Interactive and ProElite.com will collaborate on generating interactive content for both companies’ Web platforms, including CBSSports.com. The online events could include video streaming of the events and clips and highlights syndicated across the CBS Audience Network.
“Mixed martial arts is one of the fastest growing sports in the country and a wildly popular entertainment vehicle for upscale, young adult audiences,” said Kelly Kahl, senior vp, CBS prime time. “It’s original programming for Saturday night. It’s live, creating an event atmosphere and it’s something that hasn’t been seen on network television until now.”
Gary Shaw, president of EliteXC, called the agreement “a pivotal moment for the sport of mixed martial arts now that a major television network plans to broadcast live MMA events during prime time.”
It was a seminal moment for mixed martial arts when CBS reached an agreement with EliteXC to put four MMA shows on network television. But it was a moment that the chairman of the board at CBS wishes hadn’t happened.
Sumner Redstone, the billionaire who owns a controlling stake in CBS, said yesterday that the network’s deal with EliteXC was a mistake, and that it is not “socially responsible” to air MMA on network television. “I’m a lover not a fighter,” Redstone said. “I don’t like the sport.”
Of course, CBS routinely shows violent entertainment programming – heads getting blown off, people being stabbed and shot, that sort of thing. Redstone has no problem with that, as long as the violence gets ratings.
And that’s why if the first EliteXC show gets good ratings on CBS, I think we’re going to see a statement from Redstone in which he says he was wrong, and MMA is a great sport. And if EliteXC gets bad ratings, I think we’re going to see a statement from Redstone in which he says he was offended and has decided to call off the remaining three shows.
when did cbs start showing mma? anyway, kimbo, robby lawler, and a bunch of others are fighting tonight on cbs. they even have 2 female mma fights. sorry if this was already posted.
the kimbo fight was kind of bad. the ref stopped it way too early. the first couple fights were ended in the first round. i thought there was going to be 2 women fights but there was one and it was really good. and the robbie lawler fight was pretty good. he fought scott smith and they really brought a good fight. it was also called early bc smith took a finger to the eye. and the ref said he had up to 5 minutes to recover. then the dr asked him are you ok? or can you see? and he said not right now but i will be ok in five minutes. so the dr. called the fight.
i think bc it was on cbs the refs were overly cautious and called fights unnecessarily.
I came to this board today thinking there would be all this discussion on the first fight my TV can pick up, commercial TV that is, and there is nothing here, no posts or comments.
Did anyone but me see it?
Anyway, I liked it. The chick fight had some very impressive skill.
Some quick fights all around. I have known about Kimbo since he I came across a backyard brawl of his 2 years ago.
I liked the fights, but then I read this post about how it was all a joke.
Is it true? The whole thing is a fixed joke or was this reporter a paid lackey of the John McCain Boxing commision(He mentioned McCain’s ****fighting quote without attributing the quote).
So…
Here is Dan Wetzel’s article, don’t know how he is qualified to talk, but if I was one of the fighters I would have a hankering to hunt him down.
CBS’s broadcast of the Elite XC mixed martial arts program Saturday night — the first on a broadcast network in prime time — generated a preliminary national rating of a 2.7, or an average of 4.3 million viewers. The viewership fell from the 5.9 million CBS generated this season for the crime series that usually run Saturday nights on the network. But the national rating covered the 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time period and did not include the main event, won by Kimbo Slice over James Thompson. In Nielsen Media’s 54 metered markets, the rating peaked at a 4.7 from 11:30 to 11:45, when Slice fought.
The 9-11 p.m. portion finished first against CBS’s competition in young male and young adult demographics. Still, the 4.3 million viewers who watched the much-hyped Elite XC program fell short of the 5.9 million who watched the Rampage Jackson-Dan Henderson U.F.C. lightweight title fight on the Spike cable channel in September.
I watched it, and I was not impressed. I would compare it to Watching AA baseball.
The Kimbo fight was rigged. They put him up against a guy that they knew he could beat and if you ask me kimbo almost lost. He is not a premier fighter and to be honest may be getting to old too. Save your money Kimbo your stock is falling fast.
