Well, I was wrong
Jeremy Stephens win over Josh Emmett at UFC on FOX 28 does 1,826,000 viewers, which is a moral win
Stephens vs. Emmett, a shaky main event due to the relative lack of star power of Emmett who was largely unknown prior to a surprise win over Ricardo Lamas, was widely expected to set a record low for the series. Between the main event and the network competition, going against both the Olympics on NBC and the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game on ABC, things didn’t look pretty.
The number beat the previous FOX show by 15 percent, although that Jan. 27 special did the all-time record-low 1,593,000 in similar fast nationals. Last month’s special was headlined by a Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Derek Brunson main event. It also beat the 1,640,000 previous record low set on July 22 for a Chris Weidman vs. Kelvin Gastelum main event.
FOX was still last among the four networks that programmed nationally last night, in total viewers, and third, beating 48 Hours on CBS, in the key 18-49 demo with an 0.55.
Another key comparison point is under similar competition, Premiere Boxing on FOX on February 17 did only 1,058,000 viewers and an 0.25 in the 18-49 demo for a show headlined by Danny Garcia vs. Brandon Rios, who are bigger names in boxing than Stephens and Emmett are in MMA.
Still not close to good, but better than I expected
