This weekends UFC 157 FX Prelim show’s ratings are in and they a lot lower than UFC 156’s FX Prelim show which was a record breaker.
According to multiple sources, the UFC 156 preliminary card landed at 1.267 million viewers. UFC 156 is still the top getter with 1.897 million total.
Now, you can argue that this was still a strong number as it is within the FX prelims average (see chart below,) but with having little to no competition on television this isn’t exactly a number to be happy about.
When it came to national network competition in the same time-slot, the UFC lost out to two reruns on CBS again in overall viewers and Cops on Fox for 18-49 adult demographic numbers. Both NCIS and 48 Hours averaged over 5 million viewers and Cops was over 1.1 on the 18-49 adult demographic.
On a total side note, the UFC wasn’t the only sport running female heavy over the weekend as Danica Patrick lead in the pole position for Nascar’s Daytona 500 race on Sunday. This was a huge ratings success for Fox garnering a 30% increase from last year and average of over 10 million viewers and a huge 22 share. The race itself peaked at over 12 million viewers during the last 30 laps of the race. The race was also the highest rated Daytona 500 since 2006, which aired on NBC.