From a press release:

NEW YORK, NY, June 23, 2009 – This past Saturday, June 20, the UFC was once again the undisputed champion in sports on television among young men. The live finale of the ninth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” airing Saturday June 20 (9:00pm-12:00am), drew more men in the advertiser-coveted demographic of Men 18-34 (663,000) than MLB baseball on FOX (184,000) and coverage of U.S. Open golf on NBC (384,000) which ran earlier that day.

By Pramit Mohapatra

FightTicker.com has obtained ratings and viewer numbers for this past Saturday's MMA television fare and clearly the UFC still reigns supreme as a brand, even when counterprogramming rival's live events with its own replayed events. Spike TV's broadcast replay of UFC 94 drew far more viewers, and was comparable or better in ratings in comparison to Showtime's live debut of Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz.

Ratings and viewership numbers after the jump:

By Tom Casale, FightTicker.com Blogger

Spike TV today announced that the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 9 drew 1.8 million viewers. Among the 18-49 male demographic the show scored its highest ratings since the season four debut in 2006.

Among all viewers, The Ultimate Fighter 9 drew its highest ratings since the season five debut in 2007.

New York, NY, February 24, 2009 – Spike TV’s coverage of UFC 95 on Saturday, February 21 (9:00pm-Midnight) delivered more Men 18-34 (634,000) and Men 18-49 (1,244,000) than anything else on television (broadcast or cable) in its timeslot. The action-packed fight card peaked at 11:30pm with 3 million viewers for the main event featuring former “The Ultimate Fighter” champs and current lightweight contenders Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez and Joe “Daddy” Stevenson.
With a bevy of exciting early-round knockouts, the three-hour Spike telecast included an unprecedented nine fights, five from the main card and four undercard bouts. The previous high for a Spike TV fight card was seven fights.

From a press release:

New York, NY, February 10, 2009 – Spike TV’s live “UFC Fight Night” in Tampa, FL, the first UFC card in the city’s history, served as a showcase for some of mixed martial arts’ rising stars, and garnered strong ratings in the process. UFC Fight Night on Spike TV ranked #1 in Men 18-49 and Men 18-34 among ad-supported cable for its time period.

From a press release:

UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar can now add television ratings champion to his resume. Spike TV’s replay of UFC 91 (originally airing on Pay Per View on November 15) featuring UFC legend Randy Couture vs. Lesnar was the highest rated show among Men 18-34 in all of television (broadcast or cable) in its timeslot on Saturday, January 24 (9:00-11:30pm ET/PT). UFC 91 peaked at 3.3 million viewers at 11:15pm for the Lesnar victory ending in a second round TKO. The entire fight card, which included exciting victories for lightweight contender Kenny Florian and heavyweight hopeful Gabriel Gonzaga, averaged 2.3 million viewers for the 2.5 hour telecast, easily making UFC 91 the most-watched taped UFC event in network history.

By Bryan Levick, FightTicker.com blogger

MMAPayout.com is reporting that Wednesday night's debut episode of UFC Primetime Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn drew over 1.4 million viewers. The initial reports show that over 800,000 viewers watched the 10 pm episode while over 600,000 tuned in for the replay at 10:30 pm. These viewership numbers should go a long way in justifying the $1.7 million price tag that the UFC paid to produce the three-part series.

More from MMAPayout.com:

"MMAPayout.com has learned that the premiere of Countdown to UFC 92 on Spike drew 733,000 viewers. That is a strong number, especially in comparison to Countdown to UFC 91 on Spike drew only 537,000 viewers, also on a Monday night airing. The number is also significantly higher than the average Countdown viewer total for the year of around 600,000 viewers, mainly in a slot later in the week. Using the rating as a general gauge of mainstream interest in the show, the number should portend a higher than expected number for the PPV buys."

I wasn't one of the 733,000 viewers.

From MMAWeekly.com:

According to Kahl 4.3 million people tuned into the broadcast throughout the course of the evening.
...
The ratings for men and women in the 18-34 and 18-49 categories were down 11 percent and four percent, respectively, from EliteXC’s CBS debut in May, the last card to feature stars Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.

Kahl stressed the ratings were a good sign of improvement after a lackluster showing at the second CBS-televised EliteXC card in July, particularly impressive considering the college football and baseball playoffs they aired against.
...
Kahl said there was no reason CBS wouldn’t broadcast a fourth EliteXC show.

Kelly Kahl, the person referenced in the article is the Senior Executive Vice President for CBS Primetime Television, so it's understandable that he'd be optimistic about the numbers.

However, I tend to think these initial ratings don't paint such a rosy picture. For one thing, the numbers in key demographics are down from EliteXC's initial ratings from its show back in May. And, that's with a main event featuring Kimbo Slice and a card also featuring the "face of women's MMA", Gina Carano.

While some would argue that EliteXC was competing against college football, baseball playoffs, and UFC counter-programming this time around, the point is that apparently EliteXC's first two shows created no new MMA fans and in fact had difficulty retaining the viewers from those shows.

The main issue is, why is this the case? Does MMA actually have limited mainstream appeal? Or do mainstream fans recognize EliteXC as the inferior product that it is when compared to the sport's #1 promotion, the UFC?

And for EliteXC, the question is, can the promotion succeed without both Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano on the card? The second show flopped in the ratings without either fighter on the card. And, with Slice having been exposed two fights in a row now and his mystique all but evaporated, will he continue to remain a big draw? Is it enough to be scary-looking and look the part of an MMA fighter or do mainstream fans crave skills as well?

Only time will tell whether CBS' experiment with EliteXC worked and whether MMA as a sport benefited from the trial. However, I've seen nothing in the first three shows that changes my opinion that it would have benefited the sport much more had network TV's first primetime promotion been the UFC rather than EliteXC.