Low ratings for UFC on FOX 3: 2.4 million viewers
UFC on Fox 3 was one of the best cards of the year and the best UFC event hosted on FOX thus far. According to UFC President, Dana White and quoted by my colleauge, Mike Drahota on Lowkick.com: 10,788 fans witnessed the event in person for a live gate of $1.1 million. Despite this, the Cinco de Mayo Event had relatively poor TV ratings.
Fight fans were treated to Nate Diaz winning submission of the night in his victory over Jim Miller and none could forget the spectacular undercard with Johny Hendricks, Alan Belcher and Lavar Johnson. However, television viewership painted quite a different picture. According to tvsportsratings.com
UFC on FOX 3: 1.6 Men 18-34 (-50% vs. UFC on FOX 2) and 2.4 mil viewers (-48%)
— TVsportsratings (@tvsportsratings)May 7, 2012
Those numbers represent a sharp decline from Fox’s previous UFC events. The debut garnered some 5.7 million viewers in November 2011, and 4.7 million viewers for the second event in January. Some of the blame may be to having the card up against the Mayweather vs. Cotto boxing match and the NBA playoffs. A relatively warm Saturday night in most of the United States may have played a role addittionally for low ratings.
UFC on FOX 4 is scheduled for August 4, 2012 at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. It will be interesting to see if viewership picks up based on the excellent card that was put together for UFC on FOX 3.
