Last UFC on FOX Draws Best Overnight Ratings In Two Years

Last night’s (Sat., December 15, 2018) UFC on FOX 31 from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, brought some surprising good news.

Buoyed by the distinction of being the final UFC card on FOX, the event brought the best overnight ratings in two years. According to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer, the card averaged 2,153,000 viewers based on fast nationals. The show did a 0.7 rating in the important 18-49 age demographic. That was the highest number for any major network television show in its time slot. 

Being the last show in the UFC’s seven-year history with FOX was obviously a huge part of the show’s success. The UFC began airing with its then-historic television deal with FOX in 2011. At the time, it was expected that the move had made a big stride in taking MMA towards the mainstream. It did, in a sense, although the big FOX shows went through several different trends. 

They used to showcase top contenders bouts or champions or struggled to draw PPV ratings. UFC on FOX 31 was headlined by Al Iaquinta vs. Kevin Lee. While that was no doubt a great fight between two rising contenders, it was a far cry from the Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez title fight that the UFC debuted with on big FOX.

Ratings Will Be Even Bigger

Regardless, the event drew the largest ratings since December 2016. That card was headlined by women’s strawweights Michelle Waterson and Paige VanZant, and also showcased Urijah Faber’s retirement fight. Meltzer reported that event drew an average of 2.69 million viewers, a steep increase from last night’s nationals.

But it’s important to note these fast nationals only track the 8-10 p.m time slot on big FOX. Included are the corresponding 7-9 p.m. Central, 6-8 p.m. Mountain and 8-10 p.m. Pacific zones. That means it did not track the ratings for the West Coast, where the main card began at 5 p.m. Also, much of Iaquinta vs. Lee happened after 10 p.m. and has not been quantified yet.

It lasted a full five rounds, so the main event numbers coupled with West Coast numbers should result in bigger overall numbers.