The popularity of Spike TV's reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" may also be adding some weight to the Ultimate Fighting Championship's pay-per-view numbers, reports Multichannel News. The show, now
in its third season, was created for the express purpose of exposing a broader audience to the sport, says UFC President Dana White: "Reality was hot at the time and ["The Ultimate Fighter"] turned
out to be our Trojan horse. . . .You get caught up in the story line and eventually that interest spills over into the actual events." Averaging 1 million viewers in its first season, the show
ballooned to $1.9 million the second time around and is now at 2.2 million viewers, according to Spike TV. On PPV, it is averaging between 200,000 and 350,000 buys each for its 10 annual events a
year--already on par or above many boxing and wrestling events. And those numbers have not been lost on the category's top players: "I think UFC is an interesting sport that's doing well right
now," says HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg.
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