Saturday night’s live UFC On Fuel TV 2 event pulled in an average of 197,000 viewers according to figures released today.
That’s a little lower than the first show on the FOX owned network which drew 217,000 viewers, but it does surpass the numbers seen for UFC prelim cards earlier in the year with UFC On FX 1 prelims doing 148,000 while UFC On FX 2 prelims did 113,000.
On reflection Saturday’s numbers are actually pretty respectable in relative terms considering that in a complete break from the norm the UFC aired this European based card live in the U.S despite the fact that it was airing in the afternoon. In previous years during their television deal with Spike TV European cards had instead been aired in a prime-time slot in the evening’s on a tape-delay basis in order to maximize advertising revenues.
In the bigger scheme of things the ratings are still low, but there is a general understanding that part of the UFC’s role in it’s new television deal with FOX is to help build Fuel TV, the network’s smallest station, and that’s something that won’t happen overnight, though the promotion’s presence has already provided it with unprecedented growth since the deal began back in January.
Those who did tune into the show will no doubt have been left satisfied that it was an afternoon well spent as UFC On Fuel TV 2 proved to be one of the best cards of the year so far with plenty of action, a string of entertaining finishes and perhaps the emergence of a new light-heavyweight star in Sweden’s own Alexander Gustafsson who defeated Thiago Silva in the main event of the show.
