UFC 132 Prelims Fall to Second to NASCAR in the Race for Coveted TV Ratings

The UFC 132 Prelims on Spike TV on Saturday night pulled in 1.2 million viewers. That’s slightly below the series’ average of 1.44 million per event.

The numbers were strong enough to keep Spike at No. 2 in the race for the coveted advertiser demographics of Men 18-34 and Men 18-49 on Basic Cable telvision. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on TNT took top honors in those demographics with the Coke Zero 400.

The UFC 132 Prelims on Spike featured Melvin Guillard’s crushing knockout of Shane Roller, and Rafael dos Anjos matching him with his own first-round knockout of Aussie George Sotiropoulos.

The live prelims on Spike TV has been a staple of the network over the past couple years, but may come to an end after 2011. Spike TV and the UFC have been in negotiations, but are expected to discontinue their broadcasting relationship when their current contract runs out.

Although UFC president Dana White has said they are currently in talks with “everybody” about a television deal, most rumors are pointing to the UFC taking over a controlling interest in the G4 network and moving a good deal of its programming, including “The Ultimate Fighter,” to the network.