Viewership Down For UFC 206 Prelims
This past Saturday’s UFC 206 prelims did a solid viewership number but not one to write home about. The prelims that aired on FOX Sports 1 from 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. EST drew 771,000 viewers. The pre-fight show drew 233,000 viewers.
The post-fight show did not rank in the top 150 shows on cable for the night, which is not a good sign for PPV buys as that meant that not a lot of people were interested enough to hang out and catch the results/highlights of the actual PPV main card after the event aired. Usually when a PPV event does a good/great PPV buyrate, then the post-fight show does good viewership numbers.
The UFC 206 prelims were down compared to the UFC 205 prelims, which drew 1,801 million viewers. Granted, UFC 205 had a great preliminary lineup that was headlined by Frankie Edgar and Jeremy Stephens and had Conor McGregor fighting in the main event, which always boosts ratings for UFC prelim cards. The UFC 204 prelims drew 678,000 viewers, so that is a positive sign for the UFC regarding this past weekend’s event.
The event went up against the Heisman Trophy ceremony on ESPN that drew 2,638 million viewers.
The UFC returns to television this Saturday with UFC on FOX 22 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. The prelims will air on UFC Fight Pass at 3:30 p.m. ET and FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m. ET. The main card will air on FOX at 8 p.m. ET. A women’s strawweight bout between Paige VanZant and former Invicta FC Atomweight Champion Michelle Waterson will be the main event while Sage Northcutt vs. Mickey Gall in a welterweight bout will serve as the co-main event.
