Watchdog

http://thebiglead.com/?p=8300#more-8300Heavens, that MMA card on CBS Saturday night does not seem to have gone well at all.

UFC boss Dana White on the EliteXC event, via The L.A. Times:

"What happened on CBS makes me sick to my stomach. It disgusts me. I've been working . . . for 10 years now to show the world what an amazing sport this is, and what amazing people are in it. It goes against everything the UFC stands for."

(UPDATE: Here's video of Mr. White - using a lot of R-rated language - further offering his opinions on this.)

It took 14 seconds for Kimbo Slice’s 15 minutes of fame to end Saturday night on CBS, when the YouTube sensation went down, perhaps taking with him EliteXC and even mixed martial arts on broadcast TV.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

MMA in general and UFC in particular should continue to thrive on pay television, where it (like boxing) probably belongs.

Mixed martial arts is back! On CBS! Saturday night!

This time, though, the hype that accompanied the first MMA card on a major broadcast network back in May is absent, as is YouTube sensation Kimbo Slice, who helped attract much of the attention for that card.

The EliteXC promotion will come from Stockton, Calif., again with Gus Johnson on play-by-play. I asked Gus recently whether this show would be a test of whether the sport can retain whatever fans it might have gained two months ago.

"Kimbo is a huge attraction all over the country and world,'' he said. "I think this is going to be a show that really caters to the hard core MMA fan."

Still, he added, "We're going to get an opportunity to see if people stick around. I think they will. I think they’ll see a different kind of show."

The May show turned off some casual fans because of its brutality. That is part of the sport. But one thing that can and will be corrected - according to organizers - is tightening up the telecast to emphasize action rather than between-fights fluff.

"I got great feedback," Johnson said of the May show. "I had guys come to me and say, 'I didn’t like that mixed martial arts stuff, but I sat there with my entire family and it was barbaric, it was bloody, but for some reason we like it. We saw the brilliance of it, and the genius of it."'

The MMA business still is in the shaking-out period other than powerful and profitable UFC.

The troubled IFL is on its way out. Its stellar p.r. man, Joe Favorito, who used to handle the media for the Knicks, will be leaving the company Thursday.

At least Joe's blog still is on the WatchDog blog roll.

Enjoy that and other blog roll offerings. I'm done for the week.

The IFL seems to be struggling in the crowded, competitive mixed martial arts world.

The MMA purists who hated CBS' Elite XC card Saturday night urged me to check out the WEC card on Versus Sunday, promising a much better example of what the sport is about.

I didn't, but many people did, and apparently the event lived up to its billing.

The show, featuring featherweight Urijah Faber against Jens Pulver, attracted 1.4 percent of households that get Versus and averaged 1.535 million viewers.

It was the highest-rated and most-viewed non-NHL playoffs, non-Tour de France telecast in OLN/Versus history.

Here's an old picture of James Thompson - who almost beat Kimbo Slice Saturday night - back when his ear looked much better than it does now.

I wrote an item about the MMA card earlier today and will have another one in the newspaper Tuesday, but here is some additional ratings info that I found mildly interesting:

The rating in 54 major markets peaked at 4.7 percent of homes from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m., when Slice and Thompson were doing battle.

Oklahoma City led the way with a huge 11.1 percentage, followed by nine other markets that are not in the Northeast or Upper Midwest: Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, Las Vegas, Tulsa, Miami, Los Angeles, St Louis.

The hockey game was over by then, so I'm not sure what this means. Discuss among yourselves.

Good night. Enjoy the 1996 Dodge National Circuit Finals rodeo at 11 p.m. on ESPN Classic.

Honestly, I don't know where to begin in discussing the historic debut of Mixed Martial Arts in prime time on a major broadcast network Saturday.

It seemed to upset everyone, from the MMA purists who found novice Kimbo Slice to be an embarrassing symbol for the sport, to the MMA skeptics who found the entire spectacle to be a step backward for Western Civilization.

(I'll flesh out the confusing TV ratings data in the newspaper, but the bottom line is that it did pretty well, particularly among - surprise! - young males.)

Gosh, I don't know . . . It was undeniably disturbing, a weird hybrid of pro wrestling and boxing, and not necessarily more or less moral and valid than either of them.

It also was undeniably entertaining in spots, and the hyperbolic Gus Johnson was the right man for the blow-by-blow.

Given everything else on television, there is no reason to deny EliteXC and CBS another episode of this drama, but next time organizers might want to tighten up the production to shorten the endless filler between fights.

And it might want to showcase fighters other than Mr. Slice, who looked much more like a boxing prospect than an MMAer.

Harvey Korman died Thursday.

What does that have to do with my Friday newspaper column? WatchDog kudos to the first reader with an answer.

For a big hint, here is a quote from CBS executive Kelly Kahl about the night the network chose for its inaugural Mixed Martial Arts show this weekend:

"I think all the networks are guilty of letting Saturday night slip away. It wasn’t that long ago that Saturday nights were a big deal on network television. If we can use this to make Saturday night a little bit more of an event from time to time that’s a win for everybody . . . Unfortunately, the bar isn’t all that high for success. If we get half the people who really seem to be into MMA, we’ll do OK. But we’re not putting high expectations on this first one."

Hey, look everyone, I'm writing about mixed martial arts again!

In the actual Friday newspaper!

Just trying to keep up with the times, my friends.

Enjoy the card on CBS Saturday night.

I'll be watching hockey, but do what is best for yourself . . .

Well, this should be interesting . . . CBS announced Monday that Gus Johnson would serve as the play-by-play announcer May 31 when mixed martial arts comes to the network for the first time.

This might be too much overall agitation for your TV set to absorb. Please make sure to watch from at least 15 feet back.

Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo will be the analysts. Karyn Bryant will be the "cageside" reporter.

"Gus Johnson delivers great energy and storytelling to every sports event he calls," Kelly Kahl, senior executive VP for CBS Primetime, said in a news release, establishing an early leader in the running for TV executive understatement of the year.

By the way, Gus has studied Kung Fu, boxing and most recently Jiu-Jitsu.

I spoke to writer/director David Mamet last Friday about his new movie, "Redbelt," which comes out Friday, and about the rising profile of mixed martial arts in general and of his particular interest, Jiu-Jitsu.

"It’s coming out of the woodwork," he said. "It’s great. MMA is just part of the movie. It’s part of the world these guys move in. But I’m really glad that MMA has become so popular, because I think a lot of MMA fans are going to appreciate the movie, because we have a lot of MMA fighters, and we have a lot of the MMA spirit.

"It’s a movie about Jiu-Jitsu. I got into it about six years ago. I ran into a pretty good friend of mine in Los Angeles, Eddie O’Neill, who’d been studying for many, many years, and he said you come out to Los Angeles I’m going to get you to some guys, and he did.

"I started when I was 55, so it’s great. You do it little by little. They call it the old man’s sport, because the better you get at it the less force you use.

"It’s like trying to hit a golf ball. You use knowledge."