This weekends UFC 161 FX Prelim show (Saturday) and World Series of Fighting 3 (Friday) ratings are in and they are both somewhat surprising.
According to Nielsen sources, the UFC 161 FX Prelim show fell sharply from UFC 160 by 25% landing at a meager 968k total viewers. This is the first time the UFC has not reached over 1 million average total viewers since UFC 154. UFC 156 still remains as the top getter with 1.897 million total back a few months ago.
According to the same sources, the World Series of Fighting 3 ratings were down slightly to 201k total viewers. The World Series of Fighting’s second event drew an average of 210k total viewers.
Not a bad showing by the World Series of Fighting on a Friday night even with the small dip. It will be interesting to see what the peak numbers are, which will be out later this week, which brought the second event to a peak of over 300k.
Getting back to the UFC, the UFC obviously didn’t have the most attractive card on FX, but the UFC also went up against a NBC Sports Networks juggernaut which was game two of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Final between two original-six teams in the Bruins and Blackhawks.
Game 2 ended up being the most-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 2 on Cable in 16 Years. The game ended with a huge 2.9 overnight rating and 3.964 million viewers total. The UFC also went up against the MLB on FOX which drew and overnight rating of 1.9. Again, very stiff competition for a lackluster UFC prelim to be able to handle.
As always stay with TheMMAReport.com for all the latest ratings news, analysis and don’t forget to check the continually updating chart below for UFC on FX preliminary ratings.