Showtime Boxing’s Saturday night event featuring Deontay Wilder defending his heavyweight title against Artur Szpilka drew just 500,000 viewers and peaked at 623,000 according to Nielsen. The event was up against NFL Football last Saturday night.
Notably, Wilder fought almost one year earlier against Bermane Stiverne on Showtime and drew 1.24 million viewers. The peak that night was 1.34 million. The event was based on the actual run time of the fight and not the overall event on Showtime.
Similarly, last Saturday, the viewership for Wilder’s fight against Szpilka saw only 500,000 subscribers tune in during one of Showtime’s “free preview” weekends. Thus, despite the opportunity for more viewers to tune in that do not normally subscribe, it only drew 500,000. However, the event went up against the game between the Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers on NBC.
According to Sports TV Ratings, the Wilder fight, from 11:08-11:50pm on the east coast drew 500,000 viewers. The co-main event from 10:19-10:33 featuring Charles Martin’s TKO of Vyacheslav Glazkov drew 437,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
It’s hard to say that this fight speaks to Wilder’s drawing power as a Heavyweight champion considering it went up against the NFL. Still, the ratings reflect a decrease since he took the title last January. In June, he drew 678,000 in defeating Eric Molina on Showtime. In September, his successful defense against Joann Duhaupas on NBC drew 2.179 million viewers in prime time.
tops E says
People think after stiverne wilder has been fighting easy unknown opponents….thats why the ratings are low….i think its ok but let him fight 5x a year if its not a contender or champ opponent….like mike tyson early in his career…ko everybody
d says
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Talk about a HW division comeback! The savior of the hw’s landing 500k! HAHAHA!!!
Fight Fan says
Cards packers game drew the highest ratings ever for a Saturday night playoff game. I watched it live and then watched the wilder fight on my dvr. Expect big numbers tonight.
d says
More delusions.
Chris says
Thought being on Showtime and PBC events was gonna help ratings on Showtime etc and make guys stars?
Isnt that what Tops has been saying for a year?
PBC has been pretty bad, ratings are down everywhere and now after being on NBC WIlder has lost half his viewers.
Will say one positive for PBC is this card on Fox tonight, blizzard, no NFL, everyone on east coast is snowed in, that should def help ratings but overall you cant say PBC is doing well right now.
tops E says
Hahahaha Chris is back…give it 2 to 3 years and you’ll see a lot of boxing stars,who did wilder fight anyways? havent seen that guy fight at all..
d says
In 2-3 years, PBC will be long gone and these guys are going to take massive pay cuts fighting with other promotions because the sport is headed for the gutter. The ratings are DECLINING, there is no reason at all for them to change course unless they introduce celebrity boxing with A list celebs. Haha.
So not only have their tv ratings been horrible, but boxing’s ppv industry is collapsing with 1 star(who doesn’t come close to Mayweather in terms of buys) that will lose if he fights GGG.
tops E says
Tyson fury and wilder should fight on one card against diff opponents on free tv 1 or more before theyre collision course..
tops E says
Whatever happened to the new cfo? And flash? And loan due hahaha fanboys so concerned with pbc losing money( they love pbc so much hahaha) that they forgot all about the loan due,ufc has what 300m due? and stations while now out of bankruptcy has still 2 billion in debts?…ipo means they want to raise money…for what?
Dunlap says
These obviously aren’t good numbers but they really mean nothing. If you’re dumb enough to think the NFL didn’t effect these ratings I don’t know what to tell you. In the US when the NFL playoffs are on everything else means nothing it’s really that simple. I even said to my buddy when watching this the ratings would be shit.
d says
With the UFC having a record year, Tops is posting much more frequently trying to spin it. HAHAHAHA!!!!
tops E says
Hahahaha Chris came out of retirement. D is avoiding the cfo issue with flash..and obsessing with pbc..forgetting other big players top rank and gbp …a lot on fertitas mind 2 billion long term debt and 300m near due,ipo not getting good investor buzz haha….they live on credit hahaha…
d says
Tops full court press is on. He can’t take it. HAHAHAHA!
Gil says
Boxing viewership is almost entirely driven by star power. Wilder is simply not a big star nor was this a significant match up. Live streaming the fight on youtube probably didn’t help the TV ratings either.
Anti Trolls says
TOPS = dflkshgfoiuntoirutpaoiruotujroitsg
Chris says
PBC needs to make fights like THurman/Porter, more of that, thats a great fight.
Tonights fight is pretty good, I’m watching that over shitty WSOF card. I’m snowed in right now.
tops E says
CFO? Flash?
tops E says
CFO? Flash? Hahaha gag order?
Fight Fan says
d why do you hate boxing so much?
d says
Fight Fan, why do you hate mma so much?
d says
Guerrero-Garcia attendance was 12k including comps at the Staples Center which holds 21k. This was supposed to be a big fight. Just goes to show how poor boxing is drawing right now across the board.
The purses for the fight were in the 3.5m range, with a weak gate that probably didn’t do more than 1m, it is hard to imagine this fight breaking even.
The Greatest says
Yea boxing is such a poor draw that Cuba Gooding Jr, Eddie Murphy, and Floyd Mayweather went to the fights.
Does any stars go to UFC on Fox?
The Greatest says
55,000 watches Klitschko-Fury but D will tell you that doesn’t count.
And Garcia-Guerrero was not a big fight you moron
tops E says
Living on credit is stressful hahaha
d says
“Yea boxing is such a poor draw that Cuba Gooding Jr, Eddie Murphy, and Floyd Mayweather went to the fights.
Does any stars go to UFC on Fox?”
HAHAHA!!! Floyd Mayweather??? That’s like saying Chuck Liddell going to the UFC fights is a celebrity. HAHAHA!!!
Also, Cuba Gooding Jr. has been washed up for a decade, Eddie Murphy was probably doing someone a favor.
The arena was half empty, this fight bombed at the gate.
Yes, stars go to UFC fights on FOX all the time- more so than boxing tv fights, the UFC is getting more viewers on the networks as well.
d says
“Living on credit is stressful hahaha”
I know, Hayman has noticeably more gray hairs these days. HAHAHA! Maybe they’ll be able to recoup 1m from that jumbotron they bought to pay back their investors. HAHAHAHA!!!
Fight Fan says
D you got a source on those ticket sales?
d says
Yeah- every source that reported the fight. Hahaha. A simple google search would confirm it.
Interesting how you always request sources, yet never provide your own, nor do you ever do any research.
Here is one for you below, there are a million others.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/14634629/danny-garcia-decisions-robert-guerrero-welterweight-title-vacated-floyd-mayweather
Fight Fan says
So I guess rafael is a credible source now? How about when he reported the mayweather pac numbers?
d says
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Literally EVERYONE reported the same thing about the attendance number. That is something they can not lie about because for one the Staples Center handles the count and also they have to report the numbers to the athletic commission by law.
Also- Rafael sourced the promotion for the May-Pac numbers. He didn’t say his contacts came up with that number. He stopped releasing numbers for Mayweather fights after he exposed Espinoza, Mayweather etc for their lie about the Guerrero fight numbers, he was clearly told to stop questioning the numbers.
The Greatest says
Garcia-Guerrero early ratings averaged 2.25M.
So those numbers will go up when they get the full ratings. Basically did what UFC on FOX does.
FOX might become home of combat sports with boxing having cards on HBO and Showtime with random NBC and CBS cards
d says
Wow. If that is the case, they just proved, PBC is doomed. That was a big fight expecting big ratings, with a lot of money invested and they did below what the average UFC on FOX does. The UFC basically just did the same number on FS1.
There is no way they will get a real legit deal with these numbers. The math isn’t there to sustain this. That fight had to have cost 6m. Networks do not pay out higher than that for 2.5m viewers. It just can not work. The only reason this is even going on is because they are in a time buy deal where FOX is getting paid regardless.
The Greatest says
Your math has no weight to it. Garcia-Guerrero was not a big fight. Guerrero got dropped by feathetfisted Aron Martinez last fight and got away with a robbery decision.
This wasn’t a big fight. It was Garcias first real test at 147lbs.
d says
Your cliches are incoherent.
Garcia-Guerrero was a big fight for PBC. This was a featured bout for them. Their ratings will not get much higher than this from here on out. They were expecting big numbers for this and it flopped. You say the same thing every time with an exaggerated prediction followed by an excuse for why the numbers fell flat.
PBC has no one that can hit 3m avg viewers for any given fight. They only hit 3m avg viewers 1 time which was on their opening night when they stacked the card and promoted it to death.