Premiere of EliteXC falls to UFC repeat in ratings battle

By Steve Sievert

The debut of Elite Xtreme Combat Saturday night on Showtime couldn't top a rebroadcast of UFC's Ultimate Knockouts 2 on Spike TV.

EliteXC's Destiny show from the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss., drew a total of 365,000 viewers on SHO in the 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m., EST, daypart, while the UFC KO compendium on Spike attracted 1.2 million total viewers in the 10 p.m. time slot.

While the comparison isn't entirely apples to apples (SHO is premium cable, Spike's on basic), the head to head does show where the majority of MMA fans spent their viewing evening.

In a related note, SHO executives wrapped up a day and a half worth of meetings this afternoon discussing the inaugural EliteXC telecast, and the network plans to meet with Elite XC brass soon to discuss enhancements for the EliteXC 2 telecast in May.

And for those of us who have continued to fret about "Slater's" no-show status on the telecast, I'm happy to report that he is just fine.

Mario Lopez, who was supposed to be part of the announcing team, was called away at the last minute to attend to an undisclosed matter.