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UFC 258 Prelims draw 794K viewers on ESPN

February 17, 2021 by Jason Cruz Leave a Comment

The UFC 258 Prelims on ESPN drew 794,000 viewers Saturday night.  The event preceded the PPV telecast on ESPN +.

It finished 13th overall in the cable ratings with the first 12 ahead of the telecast were Impeachment-related content. 

The 2-hour telecast drew 0.28 in the A18-49 demo, 0.39 in the M18-49, 0.18 M18-34, 029 in the A25-54 and 0.32 in the over 50 category.

In the feature bout of the prelims, Anthony Hernandez scored an upset over Rodolfo Vieira with a second-round submission over the renowned grappler. 

The ratings are predictably lower than last month’s UFC 257 Prelims which drew 1.433 million viewers.  In comparison to last February’s UFC 247 (which featured Jon Jones on the PPV), the prelim scored 1.48 million viewers.

Payout Perspective:

The ratings hit its lowest for over a year as 2020’s lowest prelim ratings was 950,000 viewers.  UFC 258 featured Kamaru Usman defending his welterweight title against Gilbert Burns.  The rest of the PPV card did not have anyone that might appeal to the casual viewer.  This may have deterred some casual viewers from watching the prelims on ESPN. 

Filed Under: ESPN, Prelims, ratings, UFC

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