UFC Sao Paulo Sees Big Drop In Viewership Numbers
The viewership numbers for UFC Fight Night 119 (UFC Sao Paulo) have been released.
The event, which took place on Saturday, October 28, 2017, at Ginásio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was headlined by middleweight bout between former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida and Derek Brunson, had to go head-to-head with the World Series.
As a result of this, UFC Sao Paulo did its lowest numbers ever for a live primetime show on FOX Sports 1. The show averaged 588,000 viewers.
The previous low was a Wednesday night show on July 13, 2016, that was headlined by John Lineker vs. Michael McDonald. Before that, the low was brought on by a May 31, 2014 event also in Sao Paulo that was headlined by Stipe Miocic vs. Fabio Maldonado. Both shows did 609,000 viewers.
Keep in mind that FOX Sports 1 is in fewer homes this year due to cord cutting and streaming.
The fourth game of the World Series brought in 15,400,000 on FOX. The UFC also had to go up against several college football games on Saturday night, which were also down in viewership.
Viewership peaked (671,000 viewers) during Colby Covington vs. Demian Maia fight, which had three rounds to build the audience instead of 2:30 for Brunson vs. Machida.
The prelims pulled in 198,000 viewers on Fox Sports 2 and were headlined by Vicente Luque’s second-round stoppage of Niko Price. The reason that FS2 aired the prelims was due to FS1 airing the Minnesota vs. Iowa game
The post-fight show did 265,000 viewers on FS1 while the pre-fight show on FS2 did 54,000 viewers. The last UFC Fight Night event to air on FS1 was back on September 17th that was headlined by Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch. That show averaged 872,000 viewers, and the post-fight show did 361,000 viewers.
Fight fans will not have to wait long for more UFC action as UFC 217 is slated to take place on Saturday, November 4th in New York at Madison Square Garden. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, at 6:30 p.m. ET.
