Dana White's 'The Fighters' cancelled after single episode on Discovery
UFC president Dana White along with his good friends Craig Piligian and boxing coach Peter Welch hoped to revive the sport of boxing in Boston with a new series focused on the up and coming fighters out of the city with a reality series titled 'The Fighters' but after just one episode aired, Discovery has decided to cancel the show.
According to Welch, who served as the face of the show, the series was yanked from Discovery's programming lineup after a lone episode aired two weeks ago. White, Welch an everyone involved had high hopes for the series, but bad ratings for the debut episode sunk the show's chances of sticking around for very long.
White commented on the bad ratings the show received for its initial offering, which eventually led to its cancellation on the network.
"385,000 people watched the show, which is f**king horrendous, especially for Discovery. They didn't promote it at all. I promoted the s**t out of it, but it didn't do well, which sucks because it's a great series," White said at a media luncheon recently when talking about 'The Fighters' ratings.
@MattyTLFC @danawhite Yes Matt sorry to say it has. Such a great show, we hope to get it on an audience appropriate network.@Pilgrim_Studios
— Peter Welch (@PeterWelch371) February 5, 2014
White teamed up with Piligian, who he's known for years and worked with as the executive producer on The Ultimate Fighter to create the series, but it appears their latest collaboration didn't have the same success as the first show they did together.
Welch did state on Twitter that he hopes they can take the show to 'an audience appropriate network', which means a more sports oriented showplace. Discovery features several reality shows, but is not known for sports programming so 'The Fighters' may have been knocked out in round one before the show ever started.
FOX Sports contacted Discovery for comment on the cancelled series but as of now the network has not responded with an official statement about the show's fate.
The programming guide for Discovery currently shows that 'Treehouse Masters' has replaced 'The Fighters' on the Thursday night lineup.
