Without a Heavyweight Championship fight and without quite as much fanfare as the debut in November, Saturday’s UFC on FOX had accumulated its fair share of pessimism regarding the rating.
When all was said and done, the first show ended up doing well, but not spectacularly well. Without the special novelty, was this quarter’s UFC on FOX, featuring Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis and Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping as the main-events, going to fall into the “disappointing” or “lukewarm” territory?
As of right now, if the first show was considered a good number, things look promising for the second show. It did a (very preliminary) 2.2 adults 18-49 in the fast nationals, and that number is subject to a substantial upward adjustment when the data is corrected for the live airing on the west coast and the overrun for the main-event.
Last quarter’s show registered a 2.4 in the fast nationals and then climbed by more than 20% with the time zone adjustment.
According to TVMediaInsights, the half-hour breakdown was as follows:
8:00 p.m: 3.68M, 1.8A18-49
8:30 p.m: 4.28M, 2.2A18-49
9:00 p.m: 4.62M, 2.4A18-49
9:30 p.m: 4.91M, 2.6A18-49
One thing particularly worth noting, once the data becomes more “final,” will be the minute-by-minute performance for the actual fights. The single minute of action in the Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez fight popped a very significant rating, and many feel the number could have exploded had the fight gone a few rounds longer.
Every fight on this broadcast went the distance, and the five round Evans-Davis main-event actually went cleanly into the overrun.