The first Premier Boxing Champions telecast on ESPN was not much of a draw.
The debut of the Premier Boxing Champions series on ESPN drew 799,000 viewers Saturday night, the smallest audience yet for a PBC debut. NBC (3.4M), CBS (1.4M) and even Spike (869K) scored larger audiences for their first PBC telecasts.
Overall, the telecast ranks as the fourth-least watched PBC telecast (13 total), ahead of only coverage on Spike in May (772K), April (569K) and June (446K). A more positive interpretation is that it earned the second-largest PBC audience on cable.
Despite the low numbers, Saturday’s coverage easily topped the finale of Friday Night Fights on ESPN2 in May (377K).
The PBC was not the top fighting telecast Saturday night, trailing the UFC 189 prelims on Fox Sports 1 (847K). The UFC also won the ratings battle among adults 18-49 (0.4 to 0.3).
(Sat. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
