UFC on FOX 14 Overnight Numbers Show Biggest FOX Ratings In Two Years
It looks like quite a few MMA fans tuned into watch Anthony “Rumble” Johnson score a huge knockout over hometown favorite Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of last night’s (Sat., January 24, 2015) UFC on FOX 14 from the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Based on initial overnight numbers for show reported by TV By The Numbers (via MMA’s Fighting’s Dave Meltzer), UFC on FOX 14 averaged 2.82 million viewers with a 1.1 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.
Those overnight numbers are initial estimates that do not include the East Coast numbers that will be released on Tuesday, meaning that the total figure is actually going to be higher when it’s all said and done.
The figure was also the UFC’s highest showing on FOX in exactly two years, as the event earned a 24% increase in viewership over the most recent show on the network, last December’s UFC on FOX 13 which featured a Junior dos Santos vs. Stipe Miocic slugfest in the main event.
The last FOX-aired UFC event to score such high ratings was January 2013’s UFC on FOX 6, where dominant flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson beat John Dodson in the feature bout and Anthony Pettis knocked off Donald Cerrone in the co-headliner. That event did an average of 3.33 million viewers.
Overall the figures may been indicative of the sheer magnitude of the bout, as it was widely perceived that the feature bout’s winner would go on to present major problems for light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his mercurial heel persona.
The event also featured a packed stadium full of 30,000 fans, making it the second-most attended UFC event in the promotion’s 21-year history.
Do the initial numbers for UFC on FOX 14 represent a welcome resurgence in MMA viewership after an extremely down 2014, or was it just a one-time deal based on the magnitude of the blockbuster main event?
