UFC Fight Night 91 drew 609,000 viewers on Wednesday night according to Nielsen. The event airing from 6pm to 8:43pm PT was the highest-rated sports event on cable television per Sports TV Ratings. However, it was the lowest-rated Fight Night this year.
The event which featured Jon Lineker taking out Michael MacDonald drew 298,000 viewers in the 18-49 adult demo. The event peaked with 675,000 viewers between 7:15-7:30pm PT. The prelims, which preceded the main card from Sioux Falls, South Dakota drew 311,000 viewers and 173,000 in the A18-49 demo. The prelims aired from 4pm-6pmPT.
Previous mid-July events:
UFC on Fuel TV 4 – July 11, 2012: 211,000 (Fuel TV)
No mid-July fight in 2013 (July 2013 fights were UFC 162 and UFC on Fox 8)
UFC Fight Night 45 – July 16, 2014: 640,000 (FS1)
UFC Fight Night 71 – July 15, 2015: 801,000 (FS1)
UFC Fight Night 91 – July 13, 2016: 609,000 (FS1)
Payout Perspective:
Down ratings from last year’s mid-week event although it was the highest-rated sports event on cable television Wednesday night. The ESPY’s were on Wednesday as well although that was not factored into the sports cable viewership since it was on ABC. For those wondering the ESPY’s were down 24% from last year to 5.89 million.
Overall, it was the lowest-rated televised Fight Night event of 2016. You’d have to go back to July 2015 to find a lower-rated Fight Night. UFC Fight Night 72 from Glasgow, Scotland drew just 508,000 for the main card and 292,000 for the Prelims. F
Half Life says
Terrible numbers.
Fight Fan says
Wow, not good at all
d says
Pretty good numbers considering the headliner and the fact that few even knew it was on.
BrainSmasher says
Considering it was the 4th event in a week and Wasnt advertised at all. Good numbers. With UFC 200 it would have been a mistake to promote this and create confusion and hurt 200. This event did its job. Create contenders, give fs1 content with good ratings, and reach out to grass roots fans in smaller cities. It was a success locally as shown by the gate and attendance.
I know a lot of fans who wasn’t even aware the even was happening.
E TOPS says
Still did better than most PBC events.
tops E says
Hahaha…welcome new owners…hahaha
Fight Fan says
D is back lol
Wil says
Boxing fans, dont be quick to bash this. Looks like good numbers to me seeing as it was mid week and no one but the die hards knew it was on. I had no idea about it, for an mma card to pull those numbers without anything behind it, in jerkwater, USA….thats pretty damn good. It is clear now that like boxing, mma is now star driven. As B.B. King said, “the thrill is gone” when it comes to massive numbers for the UFC. The casual interest we saw in the heyday when it was pulling 8m viewers on FOX are long gone. This is the new normal for now. Like boxing, the die hards will always tune in, but when you have a star who has a degree of cross over appeal to the casuals, thats when the numbers grow, hence the numbers for the UFC 200 prelims.
Fight Fan says
It’s been pretty good, love those buffalitos while I chat with my bartender about all the drama and busts that the ufc has had as of late. Man I almost needed another order with all the stuff going on lately.
Fight Fan says
Lesnar busted for juicing!
d says
Yeah, it’s great to see that mmapayout has done a great job cleaning up the message boards, and by cleaning them up, I mean, letting the boxing t.rolls run rampant like Topps who has been complained about by almost every regular on here. Yet they ban people who actually bother to read their articles. Probably because they have zero integrity.
d says
They’ve got Sampson now using names like “Half Life” or just using some random insult as his name, covering a different name for every article he comments under t.rolling everyone, yet no ban. Haha. Sounds like they are just big hypocrites here at mmapayout.
Gil says
It’s another D attacks everyone including the mmapayout staff episode….
When will enough be enough Jason?
d says
Yeah, you must be self destructing FF with the despair going on in boxing and all of the success going on in mma. The UFC was worth 4b, Top Rank and GB combined are worth about 100m. HAHAHAHA!!!
When was the last time boxing has hit 1m ppv buys? Will it ever even happen again???
You must be self destructing.
d says
Gil complains about me, yet loves guys like Topps and Sampson. Why? Because they harass mma fans which he supports.
I'm with Gil says
Do we really need idiots like d?
d says
I’m with Gil is Gil
Well, well says
Just how dumb does one have to be to think the UFC is worth 4 billion? Not even the best soccer clubs in the world like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are worth that much!
Am I really supposed to believe that a small MMA company in America with about a million fanboys, all of them American, is bigger than the best soccer clubs in the world whose best players earn at least 4-5 million per game?
When Lesnar + Silva + Cormier can barely draw 1 million viewers, you know the UFC’s going downhill. Now that Lesnar failed an anti-doping test (we’ve found out about it only after the fight, how convenient!), no one’s going to bother tuning in to watch him fight. Lesnar is the only real winner here. He got 2,5 million bucks just by fighting like an amateur against an irrelevant Hunt. And he did it thanks to UFC fanboys who are stupid enough to buy whatever piece of crap the UFC puts out.
d says
Well, well, aka Sampson, do you get paid to t.roll?