UFC fighter Ronda Rousey's bout against Bethe Correia at last month's UFC 190 "led to pay-per-view buys north of 900,000," which would be the top UFC PPV draw of '15 thus far. The "mega-promotion behind UFC 189 was good enough for an estimated 825,000 buys, while Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier drew an estimated 800,000 in January." The "telling factor in all of it is that Rousey is the draw." The question now is "how high" her stock can rise (MMAWEEKLY.com, 8/28).
HUDLER UP: In K.C., Sam Mellinger profiled Royals TV color analyst Rex Hudler and wrote he is the "goofball announcer some call Uncle Hud" for three hours every night. Royals fans come up to him every day and say that they "never know what’s going to come out of his mouth." He tells them, "That makes two of us." His catchphrases and presentation "closely resemble former pro wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage." Hudler said that it "wasn’t until midway through last season -- his third in Kansas City -- that the compliments started to outnumber the criticisms." Mellinger: "Look around the ballpark now and you’ll see references to his catchphrases" (K.C. STAR, 8/29).
PROCEED WITH CAUTION: GOLFWEEK's Martin Kaufmann noted Golf Channel "is taking another stab at integrating social media into its live telecasts, and the early results are what one might expect from a broadcast partner of the image-conscious PGA Tour: cautious, orchestrated and ultimately uninspired." The nature of Twitter is that "it’s wild, boisterous and spontaneous; none of those adjectives will ever be used to describe the reserved PGA Tour." That fact "was reflected during coverage of the WinCo Foods Portland Open," as the Twitter initiative "was mentioned almost as an afterthought during the shows." Kaufmann: "I counted only 21 tweets using the hashtag [#WebTour] during the first three rounds -- and only a handful of tweets were used on air" (GOLFWEEK.com, 8/31).
RADIO RETURN: WEEI-FM yesterday confirmed that Glenn Ordway "will return to the station as a midday host along with Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria," replacing Tim Benz, who "returned to Pittsburgh at the end of July after a year at the station." Ordway "spent 27 years at WEEI, including 18 as the host of 'The Big Show'" in the '90s and "into the next decade in the afternoon drive time slot" before being fired in February '13 (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/1).
