The TV ratings for the UFC’s debut on the FX network are in, and they are so-so. Friday’s UFC on FX 1, headlined by Jim Miller choking out Melvin Guillard, drew an average of 1.3 million viewers. To put that into perspective, last year’s three UFC Fight Nights on Spike TV averaged 1.9 million viewers (Spike and FX are both available in about the same number of homes).
In the key 18-49 age demographic, the event was tied (with House of Payne) for the eighth most-watched show on cable on Friday night, trailing Gold Rush, two NBA games on ESPN, WWE Smackdown, House of Payne, Robot Chicken, and Flying Wild Alaska. In terms of total average viewers of any age, it was the 19th most-watched cable show on Friday.
Meanwhile, the event’s prelim show on Fuel TV averaged 148,000 viewers, down considerably from the 1.8 million viewers UFC 141’s prelims averaged on Spike. But, then again, Fuel is available in only about the third of the homes that Spike is. Which is one of the hidden downsides of the UFC’s much ballyhooed partnership with Fox – only a handful of their events are actually going to be show on Fox, the rest are going to be on smaller networks like Fuel, which runs the risk of weakening the UFC’s brand.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
