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UFC 252 Prelims draw 831K, Top Rank Boxing 264K as lead-in on ESPN

August 18, 2020 by Jason Cruz Leave a Comment

The 3-hour UFC 252 Prelims drew 831,000 viewers on Saturday night on ESPN according to Nielsen Media Research via ShowBuzz Daily.  The event drew 375,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo.

The lead-in to UFC 252 was a Top Rank Boxing card featuring Carl Frampton. The event on Saturday afternoon drew 264,000 viewers and 83,000 in the A18-49 demo.

The 3-hour UFC prelim event featured Vince Pichel as he defeated Jim Miller via unanimous decision.  According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, the telecast peaked at 1.2 million viewers with the final hour averaging 1 million. 

UFC Prelims 2020 post-pandemic

UFC 249:  1.154M

UFC 250:   775K

UFC 251:   809K

UFC 252:   831K

Payout Perspective:

There was a slight overrun from the boxing telecast into the first hour of the prelims but that’s negligible.  The final hour of over 1 million is a good sign that many were waiting for the PPV.  Usually Top Rank boxing is after the UFC.  This time it was before but basically scored similar ratings as it usually does.  The 83K during in the A18-49 demo has to be a concern with execs. The UFC PPV Prelim rating is the second-highest post-pandemic which reflects a promising PPV number. 

Filed Under: boxing, ESPN, ratings, Top Rank, UFC

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