The reports are in and EliteXC’s "Unfinished Business" show Saturday night did not fare as well as the first time around. A slight ratings drop was to be expected as CBS no longer had the intrigue involved with the debut of the sport on network TV. Also missing in action were the two biggest stars in the EliteXC, Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.

It was a fairly decent show, actually. Adam Morgan from FiveOucnesofPain.com has a good writeup on the nitty/gritty from the show, which included some enjoyable bouts. Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith played out pretty much how I anticipated it. Cris Cyborg looked impressive and Jake Shields also had a strong showing. The problem was drawing an audience.

MMA Payout has more on the numbers and what they mean, but it looks like the show will garner close to a 2.0 rating. That means the ratings were down almost 40% from the first show. The next big card on CBS will be in October and will feature Slice and Carano again, but if the ratings don’t improve considerably, that may signal the end of EliteXC and CBS. This makes it all that much more important to keep up the facade of Kimbo Slice, when it’s revealed how important he is to developing an audience. They need Slice to keep dropping mediocre competition because one loss will shatter the allure around him.

If you managed to catch it, what did you think of Unfinished Business?

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