UFC on FOX 10 took place on Saturday night at the United Center in Chicago and former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson won a controversial split decision over former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson in the main event.
According to Nielsen sources, UFC on Fox 10 won the night on broadcast television with a TV rating up over 10% from it’s last event on Fox (UFC on Fox 9), with a 1.1 adult 18-49 rating, and up over 5% in the viewership category with 2.55 million viewers. UFC on Fox 9, back in December, finished with a 1.0 adult 18-49 rating and 2.41 million viewers.
This event now brings the UFC on Fox brand overall adult 18-49 TV rating average to 1.6 and the overall average viewership number to 3.342 million viewers. If you remove out UFC on Fox 1, which drew the highest numbers ever, 3.1 rating and 5.7 million viewers, they drop down a tad on the rating to 1.5 and 3.08 million viewers.
Overall, not a bad UFC on Fox number, but also not a great UFC on Fox number, especially when you consider that Fox used a tremendous amount of time and real-estate on its NFL playoff games to hype this event. Again, the UFC did win the night overall with its 1.1 television rating, but I am sure Fox executives were hoping for a little bit more bang-for-the-buck considering the marketing/advertising cost that they certainly ate.
For the rest of the night on the national side, CBS reigned supreme with tons of repeats that all beat out the UFC in viewership, with Mike and Molly, Two and a Half Men and NCIS all doing north of 3.30 million viewers.