UFC Fight Pass tonight at 8:00pm ET will debut a new exclusive show titled “Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series.” The weekly series will feature five live fights in each episode showcasing both up-and-coming talent and athletes attempting to revive their careers. Contender Series bouts will feature both male and female athletes and be officially regulated by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. All 11 UFC weight classes will be considered for the show and bout results will count towards athletes’ pro records. The show will be filmed in The Ultimate Fighter gym in Las Vegas and production will be done completely in-house. UFC Senior VP/Int’l & Content Joe Carr said, “The beauty of having your own digital service and OTT platform is that we have three years of consumption data, countless surveys and fans symposiums where we’re getting feedback in real time.” UFC Fight Pass provides content to several events throughout the year and numerous prelim fights to live events. However, the most common suggestion Fight Pass subscribers have had is the want for more live and original content. “We saw this as an opportunity to deliver that in a show format,” Carr said. “A lot of these OTT services face churn, and that’s the challenge. We’re no different. This is kind of an incentive to keep our subscribers committed on a month-to-month basis and feel like we’re delivering value.”
THAT DOGG WILL HUNT: One of the unique aspects of the Contender Series is in the way it will be broadcast. The show’s primary broadcast team consists of play-by-play announcers Dan Hellie and Brendan Fitzgerald, along with MMA fighter Paul Felder and former MMA fighter Yves Edwards serving as the color commentators. Hellie will be paired with Edwards for tonight's debut and then rotate each week with Fitzgerald and Felder. Laura Sanko will serve as a backstage reporter. Meanwhile, a separate, secondary audio feed will give viewers the option to listen to the “Snoopcast” featuring Snoop Dogg and former MMA fighter Urijah Faber. “With the Snoop hook, we hope it’s going to bring in new subscribers and kind of hit a broader fan base and cast a wider net,” Carr said. “The one thing that we do know is that we have a certain amount of subscribers now, but we know that we’ve had four to five times that amount come through the system at one point in time. So we think this will be an opportunity to convince former subscribers and the people that only come in for certain fights to actually subscribe on a regular basis.” Snoop Dogg detailed his role in the new show on last night's episode of "Conan."
NEW SPONSORS ON TAP: The new show is separate from UFC fights, so competitors are not obligated to wear Reebok, the exclusive apparel line for the UFC. Instead, the Contender Series has partnered with Grunt Styles to outfit all the fighters. Toyo Tires, an existing sponsor for the UFC, has also parented with the show and will be featured through the gym. The Contender Series is still actively searching for more sponsors and will sign more on following the launch of the show. The show will give the UFC the opportunity to not only find new talent on the fighting side but also be used as a way to innovate the way in which the UFC operates. Carr said, “We’re really using this as a testing platform -- not only for our talent on the commentary side and trying new things out with Snoop, but I think you’ll see us at some point in time introducing wearable technology and testing different things on that front. That’s the beauty of having this in your own backyard in the TUF gym in a controlled environment verses a big open live event. We can try to innovate and bring a lot to the table.”
