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UFC 249 Prelims draw 1.154M viewers

May 12, 2020 by Jason Cruz Leave a Comment

The UFC PPV Prelims for UFC 249 drew 1.154M viewers according to Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily.  It was the second highest rated show on cable for Saturday night.

UFC 249 on ESPN marked the return of the promotion to live events.  The prelims started at 6:00pm ET and went for 4 hours instead of two or three hours as is customary.  The event drew .48 in the A18-49 demo and 0.72 in the M18-49 demo. 

The prelims featured Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone in a competitive battle between friends and Pettis earned the victory. 

UFC 2020 PPV Prelims

UFC 246: 1.767M

UFC 247:  1.491M (missed 52 minutes due to overrun on ESPN)

UFC 248:  1.195M (missed 7 minutes due to overrun on ESPN)

Payout Perspective:

I actually thought that there would be more viewers for the prelims on Saturday.  Nevertheless, according to Monday’s SBJ report, UFC 249 drew north of 700K buys.  Wednesday will be an interesting test to see how much sports fans are thirsting for live events with a mid-week UFC event.

Filed Under: ESPN, Prelims, ratings, UFC

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