UFC Fight Night 30 drew an average of just 122,000 viewers on FOX Sports 2 this past Saturday afternoon.
Yep, you read that right, just 122,00 viewers. I did warn in a previous ratings summary that this show could be poised to deliver Fuel TV style numbers, and indeed that’s just how it’s turned out.
How did this happen? Well, the fact that the show was airing live in the UK during primetime, meaning that it was broadcast in the afternoon (or in the morning depending on your timezone) certainly didn’t help.
It was also a poorly advertised ‘Fight Night’ event with none of the usual pre-fight fanfare we’ve come to expect, while the card was on the weak side (though Lyoto Machida Vs Mark Munoz was admittedly a respectable main event).
However, the biggest reason this event always looked doomed to failure on the ratings front was the decision to air it on FOX Sports 2. As we already know, it’s been tough enough to draw viewers to the main FOX Sports 1 channel, but FS2 is much worse and is very much a TV backwater at this moment in time.
This might be something we have to get used to though as the UFC recently announced that amongst their 35 scheduled events for 2014, four are set to be aired on FOX Sports 2.
Meanwhile, World Series Of Fighting 6 actually performed better than the UFC on Saturday as it’s live broadcast on NBC Sports in the evening pulled in 161,000 viewers.
This wasn’t a cause for celebration over at WSOF however as it was actually their lowest rating so far, shedding 66,000 viewers from their previous event.
That’s perhaps to be expected though given that even though there was a title on the line, Josh Burkman Vs Steve Carl was the least glamorous headliner so far for the promotion.
