Television By Numbers reports that UFC on Fox 5 last night scored 3.41 million viewers and won the 8:00pm time slot. It received a 1.6 rating for the 18-49 adult demo.
UFC on Fox 5 did not have stiff competition in its time slot (“Frosty the Snowman” on CBS was second with a 1.1 rating). On a night with Marquez-Pacquiao IV on PPV, many tuned to Fox to watch the UFC.
Payout Perspective:
Saturday night’s Primetime event did 1 million viewers better to UFC on Fox 4.
A key to the good showing probably has to do with the fact that no one on the top of the card had to pull out due to injury. Also, the Fox promotion for the card helped out from the infusion of the UFC on NFL Sunday, the Road to the Octagon show last and branding its week of programming as “Fight Week” helped with reminding people that there were free fights on the network.
Impressive. For some context, college football Saturday night primetime telecasts on FOX network have aired 13 games in 2012. The average viewership average for those was 3.1 million and only one of the thirteen telecasts finished first in Adults 18-49.
I see Dana bragging about this on Twitter. Funny how he claims people don’t understand how the ratings work when the numbers are low, but tells everyone and their housepet about it when the numbers are good. I think we do understand the ratings, Dana.
I doubt college football gets even close to the type of marketing push that this event got
You know what’s impressive? Kimbo Slice’s ratings being that he had no real comprehensive push leading up to it. It was all Youtube fame.
Very strong card, including title fight, former champ vs #1 contender, and a future HOF. I think Fox is pleased every time it wins the night, but the UFC had to be disappointed with these results. I really do not think there is much more either Fox or UFC could do to increase viewership at this point absent putting on free title fights at 170-Heaveweight.
Adjusted up to average viewership of 4.4 million over the two and a half hour telecast.
Again, though, winning the 18-49 year old demographic (which they did for the fifth time) is FOX’s goal for the UFC events. Overall numbers are nice but that’s what they care about most.
RATINGS!!!!!!!! 4.4 Million Viewers Average… Peaked over 6M for the main event…
This card was stacked and ratings clearly show that a percentage of the casual fan have tuned out of mma.