The UFC 246 Prelims on ESPN drew an astronomical 1.767 million viewers on Saturday night and 949,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo per Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. It was the promotion’s best showing on the network and was the number one telecast on cable for Saturday.
UFC 246 saw the return of Conor McGregor and fans gravitated toward the prelims on ESPN. The telecast featured Roxanne Modaferri as she took on Maycee Barber. Modaferri defeated Barber via unanimous decision in a big upset.
The telecast was late by 22 minutes due to an overrun by the Louisville-Duke game. Notably, it was the 2nd highest rated telecast on cable Saturday. But the UFC outdrew Lou-Duke in terms of the A18-49 demo 1.06 to 0.82 which is outstanding.
Also, of note, Top Rank Boxing, which followed the prelims drew 704,000 viewers and 332,000 in the A18-49 demo which is near the top of boxing’s ratings on the network.
Payout Perspective:
For those that were wondering, the McGregor effect is real and anything that is promoted with the Conor McGregor name is still big. Even if many were tuning in to see if McGregor still had his physical abilities, the prelim ratings are a great indicator that he is the biggest star that the UFC has on its roster. Even if you count the basketball game which did a little over 2 million viewers as help, only 400,000 or so dropped off from the game.
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