The ratings are in for UFC Fight Night: Bermudez vs. Korean Zombie, and for a card that wasn’t exactly stuffed with notable names, the final number is pretty good. SportsTVRatings revealed on Tuesday that the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend show in Houston, Texas averaged 1.158 million viewers on Fox Sports 1, while the prelims averaged 834,000.
MMAPayout additionally noted that peak viewership actually occurred during the 11:15-11:30 PM ET quarter-hour, with Volkan Oezdemir’s upset win over Ovince Saint Preux averaging 1.286 million viewers. Overall, these numbers are down from last year’s UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson show, which was also on Super Bowl weekend. That card, which was originally slated for PPV before the loss of its main event, averaged more than 1.3 million viewers, and peaked during — I swear I’m not making this up — OSP’s win over Rafael Cavalcante.
The only live sporting event to outperform UFC Houston in the 18-49 demographic was the Kentucky vs. Florida NCAA men’s college basketball game on ESPN, which averaged just under 1.9 million viewers, and had a 681,000 figure (compared to the UFC’s 590,000) for the 18-49 demo.
All things considered, 1.158 million is an impressive number for the UFC, and a bounce-back from the comparative ratings flop that was UFC on FOX 23.
The next FS1 card will be UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Browne on Sunday, February 19th in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Unlike Saturday shows, which typically have a main card start time of 10 PM ET/7 PM PT, the UFC Halifax main card will begin at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT.