Last night’s UFC 239 prelims were watched by an average of 1,145,000 million viewers on ESPN on Saturday night prior to the pay-per-view main card in Las Vegas.
That’s enough to make it the third most watched broadcast of it’s kinds so far on ESPN, behind UFC 234 in February which did 1,339,000 viewers, while UFC 235 in March did even better at 1,480,000 viewers.
however, both those prelims were bolstered by having a strong lead-in from basketball matches, whereas Saturday night’s s how didn’t.
It also comes at a time when the UFC’s ratings on ESPN have generally weakened,so this past weekend’s ratings can only be seen as a success and indicate a strong interest in the pay-per-view, which was one of the most stacked of the year.
UFC 239’s prelims was the highest rated show on television on Saturday night in the 18-49 and 18-49 male age categories, as well as first on cable amongst males 12-34 and 18-34, not to mention being second on cable for 18-34 and 25-54 overall.
The peak rating for the broadcast came during the final fight of the prelims, which saw 1.4 million viewers tune in as Arnold Allen defeated Gilbert Melendez.
