More ratings from FS1 on Friday and Saturday reveal a spate of very good ratings surrounding UFC 194.
As we previously reported, UFC 194 draw a FS1 prelim record of 1,931,000 viewers. It peaked during the Urijah Faber-Frankie Saenz fight at 2.38 million viewers. It was the most watch prelims airing on any network since February 5, 2011 when the UFC 126 prelims aired on Spike TV. Those prelims, held during Super Bowl weekend, drew 1,964,000.
Prior to the two hour prelims, the UFC Prefight Show drew the fourth-highest rated rating for a Prefight Show with 556,000 viewers tuning in to FS1. After the PPV went off the air a little after 10pm PT time, viewers tuned into FS1 to watch the post-fight show which drew 344,000 viewers. The post-fight show tripled the viewership of last year’s December PPV broadcast on the network.
On Friday, the special 2 hour weigh-ins drew an average viewership of 294,000 viewers making it the most-watched weigh-in ever on FS1 according to the network.
Other ratings to note, UFC 194 preliminary bouts airing on Fox Deportes drew 146,000 viewers to rank as second-most watched this year second to only UFC 188’s Velasquez-Werdum prelims. It drew 53,000 viewers in the A18-49 category.
Payout Perspective:
The UFC 126 Prelims occurred at a time when the UFC did not hold an event every week. Those prelims included Donald Cerrone who defeated Paul Kelly on the Spike TV prelims. The prefight show, post show and prelim ratings reflect the interest many had for this event. It’s clear that Conor McGregor versus Jose Aldo was the motivating factor behind most of the viewership and many tuned into some part of the hype behind the actual UFC 194 PPV.
Cutch says
2 million if you include Fox Deportes ratings.
Chris says
Great ratings.
194 PPV gonna be big. UFC finished the year with two massive shows. Overall what a huge year.
d says
Yup and more to come in 2016 with UFC 200, Jones- Cormier rematch, Rousey-Holm, McGregor vs Whoever.
Chris says
Meltzer saying
UFC 193 1.09 mill PPV buys from his sources, says sources from Ronda’s camp say 1.22 mill.
Says 194 saying outside sources say its 8-10 percent higher than 193 but other sources say its down 5 percent from 193.
So his early estimates are 1.05 mill to 1.25 mill. Says its either gonna be second biggest PPV of all time or at worst the 4th biggest UFC PPV of all time.
But both passed 1 mill mark.