UFC Fight Night 59 draws an average of 2.751 million viewers (3.1 mil peak)

[phatron]

Conor is a bit of a draw, but let's not kid ourselves. Much of that was putting it on following playoff football.

It's like when a network put Family Guy after the Superbowl. It works for introducing a product you want to push.

Its not exactly a lead in when the fights were on FS1 and the game was on Fox.

They don't get all the extra viewers from people simply not changing the channel like a true lead in.

 

[Credo]

Why hasn

 

[Metal_Daze]

It's a fantastic #, but what's ridiculous to ignore is the factor of promoting DURING the action of the Packers-Seahawks game on Fox which had to do an enormous rating by itself. They had a video of Conor popping up saying, "he diddly de, watch me tonight on FS1 vanquish a real leprechaun" (or something to that effect). Maybe you didn't see that in Montreal though.

I didn't see the promo but I bet it was hilarious. Once again, I'll repeat myself: put Jon Fitch or Jake Shields in the same context and have them popping up saying "he diddly de" on FS1 and I guarantee you will not get the same reaction or appeal.

Now of course tons of promotion help the good ratings but it's Mc Gregor himself that calls for that much promotion, the same way Ronda gets headlines everywhere she goes. The media don't ask for Ronda because of the marketing surrounding her, they market her themselves because she's one of a kind. Same thing for Conor, the media just can't get enough of him, his brash word and his so-called sense of style.

In Dana's words, Conor is a needle mover. As for Ronda, I'll let the needle moving to your imagination...

 

[Mattitude V1]

True but I fail to understand how it's out of the average sherdoggers comprehension that the gambit UFC was playing (and worked) was to pull off the massive football audience.

Yes, they ran into the luck of "Oh, the Fox game is on earlier with a CBS game in between". But that doesn't mean the audience isn't going to say "Okay you guys want to watch 60 minutes after the Patriots or watch some Irish guys cause violence after the game?"

There was a reason UFC chose Sunday instead of Saturday. There was a reason they chose the time they did. It worked out relatively well.

They've done the same thing for Fox shows and it's done poorly at times.

It's just advertising. If you don't have what people want to see, they won't watch.

 

[Charlie77]

Yep. I had people who don't even follow mma, ask me about mcgregor and they all couldn't wait to watch the fights. It was like back when gsp fought. He always got the best promos and People that never mentioned mma would be posting statuses all over Facebook, asking who's getting the gsp fight.

I had the same experience. People at work were asking about McGregor. People who don't even ask after a Jones fight.

 

[MilesAbove]

They've done the same thing for Fox shows and it's done poorly at times.

It's just advertising. If you don't have what people want to see, they won't watch.

Which NFL Playoff-Sunday games were these in the past?

 

[Gonzaginator]

MLB playoffs didn't do 5 million on FS1.

Hate to break it to you but nobody watches baseball, which it gets dumped to FS1. They average like .5 mil. viewers. You could put a picture of a shoe up for 4 hours and generate higher ratings.

 

[jthatdude]

Good numbers whether you like Connor or not. I just wish the UFC promoted others they same way they promote Connor.

 

[Mattitude V1]

Hate to break it to you but nobody watches baseball, which it gets dumped to FS1. They average like .5 mil. viewers. You could put a picture of a shoe up for 4 hours and generate higher ratings.

Game 2 of the Giants/Cardinals NLCS drew 4.4 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 Sunday night, down 48% from Tigers/Red Sox with an NFL lead-in last year (8.3M) and down 22% from Cardinals/Giants in 2012 (5.6M). Last year

 

[the ax murderer]

That'll do, goat.

That'll do.

 

[LGVB]

Conor bless those views.

 

[MuddyFugger]

Still not even half of Elite XC Kimbo numbers..

isn't that just strange?

 

[Mattitude V1]

Still not even half of Elite XC Kimbo numbers..

isn't that just strange?

That's network TV. Totally different ball game.

BTW, I updated the first post. Peak was 3.1 million.

 

[later days]

The Cerrone Bendo fight definitely helped

Lol

 

[Ashenthorn]

More people turn the tv off than on when they hear the name Tibau.

Tibau...lol. The guy's fought 23 times in the UFC and can you remember anything about any of them? I can't even remember anything that happened in the fight from 3 days ago.

 

[Gigaton Punch]

Great number. Not just all on McGregor. This was BY FAR the most promoted FN I can remember. They gave Conor a ten minute spot on the last PPV to promote it and they were running ads all over the NFC Championship game.

 

[CC27]

Typical mma tards.

Will give a million reasons why card will flop, when it doesnt they will downplay the number and come up with a million reasons why it drew but none of them are Connor or Ronda.

It wasnt Ronda who did 450k PPV buys, it was really Hendo/Machida. It wasnt McGregor who did this, it was Bendo/Cowboy.

Nobody can ever just admit they were wrong and these are great numbers and move on.

 

[VIP1349]

Perfect combo of a big selling superstar in the Main Event, plus a good time slot after some football games. One of which, Fox was cool enough to hype it up nearly ever commercial break.

But if you think anyone else that's a non-champion barring Anderson Silva could have brought those numbers on FS1 you are foolish. The guy is a draw and not to mention they really were fucked in that they booked a show the same day as the Patriots played.

And the venue was packed from the very first fight and broke UFC records despite being up against a Patriots playoff game. That shit is crazy.

 

[Mattitude V1]

That might be a bit harsh, but I see where you're coming from.

I can see Conor bringing in a new wave of fans. Hopefully they can capitalize off of this and promote the other guys and get their faces to the masses. The thing is, the UFC has grown so much now and we have have a bunch of respectable athletes and likable people on the roster. They can sway the public (with the Gus' and others) away from the stereotypical bang-bro aura that still exists with the regular folk and push it as a legit sport. Show Gus enough, people might start thinking, "Who is this dude they keep showing, he almost beat Jones? I know enough to know he's a big deal, maybe I should check him out."

I had friends who would mock me for watching UFC. They were full of questions with McGregor because of those promos. This definitely won't be the case with all fighters, but there are enough that could peak people's curiosity.

To me, you have to watch the UFC Embedded they did on him. He's a legitimately interesting person. Seeing him interact with fans looking for autographs was interesting. Seeing him prep to do FS1 promotion was interesting.

There's a lot of really boring Embedded episodes because some guys just aren't that interesting.

Cerrone is another guy. He's not Conor, he's not a trash talker, but he's got a huge personality. He's a star. They could get behind him more, but he's suffered some pretty big losses.

 

[7th]

card should have been on regular fox tv, would have got a few mil more. Dumb ufc