UFC on FOX 25 Posts Lowest Overnight Ratings In History
The overnight ratings for UFC on FOX 25 are in, and they are bad.
Despite having some star power and having some great fights take place on the card, the UFC did not draw well on big FOX. Saturday night was a good night for the promotion in regards to the performances that the fighters put on inside the world famous Octagon.
However, when UFC officials woke up on Sunday, the positive reaction to the event changed in a big way.
The event drew 1.64 million viewers. It would be the lowest rating, based on the overnights, for a UFC on FOX event in history. The previous low was UFC on FOX 24 back in April, which was headlined by Demetrious Johnson‘s scoring a win over Wilson Reis. That show pulled in 1.74 million viewers on the overnights.
Looking back at last year’s July FOX show, which was headlined by Holly Holm vs. Valentina Shevchenko, it was the most successful summer television show in UFC history as it pulled in 2.44 million viewers.
Historically, UFC events that take place in July on FOX have been the hardest to draw big numbers in. The FOX card that aired in July of 2015 pulled in 2.29 million viewers on the overnights, which was T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao for the bantamweight title. For the history buffs out there, in 2014, the event did 2.02 million viewers on the overnights with the main event of Matt Brown vs. Robbie Lawler.
The event was headlined by a middleweight bout between former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman and Kelvin Gastelum. Weidman, who was on a three-fight losing streak coming into this bout, beat Gastelum via third round submission in the promotion’s debut at the Nassau Coliseum.
Even though Gastelum is a good fighter, he does not have much drawing power. Weidman, on the other hand, does have some drawing abilities after beating former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva twice. He was a fighter that the show was hyped around and carried the card in terms of promotion.
It should be noted that the overnight ratings only contain the first three fights on the main card.
The main event started after the time slot went off in the west coast. Thus, when the actual numbers come out in the next few days, viewership will be up, and it will be interesting to see how the main event peaked.
