The end of the UFC on FOX was a weak ratings draw.
Last Saturday’s UFC on FOX 31, the final UFC telecast on the network for the foreseeable future, earned a 1.1 rating and 1.83 million viewers — down 15% in ratings and 13% in viewership from last year’s December card (1.3, 2.11M) and down 39% and 42% respectively from December 2016 (1.8, 3.18M).
Versus the previous UFC on FOX telecast in July, ratings increased a tick (from 1.0) and viewership 8% (from 1.68M). Keep in mind the July telecast was the lowest rated and least-watched mixed martial arts event ever on primetime broadcast television.
Saturday’s telecast did not fare much better. Of the 37 all-time MMA cards on primetime broadcast TV — 31 editions of the UFC on FOX and five Elite XC or Strikeforce telecasts on CBS — it tied the second-lowest rating and earned the third-smallest audience.
Nine of the ten lowest rated and least-watched cards have come in the past two years, with this year accounting for each of the bottom three.
After launching with a 3.1 rating and 5.68 million viewers in November 2011 — including a whopping-by-today’s-standards 3.0 rating in adults 18-49 — UFC on FOX never again lived up to the hype. Not counting a UFC 206 encore in December 2016, UFC on FOX went its final five years without once cracking a 2.0 rating. In its final two years, it never exceeded a 1.3 rating or 2.2 million viewers.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 12.19]
