Another UFC down and so is another FX record. This weekends preliminary card of the UFC 156 PPV once again broke FX ratings records.
According to multiple sources, the preliminary card landed at 1.897 million total viewers, eclipsing the record of 1.860 million total viewers from UFC on FX 7.
This number comes as a shock to many, including myself, as the UFC did not offer as much marketing and advertising for this PPV and this preliminary card on FX.
To take it a step further, the UFC’s most successful PPV from 2012 (UFC 148 – Silva vs Sonnen) only landed at 1.8 million total viewers even. Something tells me the UFC is hoping these great ratings equal huge PPV numbers.
It should also be noted that between Iron Man 2 and this preliminary show FX won the night in the 18-34 adult demographic (759k) and landed in second place in the 18-49 male demographic (953k).
Although, if you compare the numbers to the national networks, the UFC lost out to two key shows in the total overall viewers and 18-49 adult demographics including the NFL Honors on CBS (3.8m w/ .9 18-49 adult) and two back-to-back episodes of Cops on Fox (3.58/3.89m w/ 1.1/1.2 18-49 adult).
All in all, this is definitely another great performance by the UFC on FX, but one cannot ignore that they still have some work to do when it comes to national network competition.