Ratings for UFC on FOX 17 disappointing

The fast national ratings for Saturday’s UFC on FOX were disappointing as the show did a 0.9 in the key 18-49 demo and 2.28 million viewers.

Keep in mind that this number covers what the FOX affiliates did between 8-10 p.m. Eastern, 7-9 p.m. Central, 6-8 p.m. Mountain and 8-10 p.m. Pacific time.  That means it doesn’t include the main event, which started at about 10 p.m. and figures in West Coast programming that wasn’t the UFC which aired from 5-7 p.m. Pacific.

With the short main event, the growth from these numbers is unlikely to be as much as in most past FOX shows.

The number was weak for a football season number for a UFC show, and more along the lines of a summer show. Also, UFC usually wins the 18-49 demo with the networks and here, it finished third as both ABC and CBS are listed as doing 1.1 for prelim numbers with ABC running the Democratic Debate (6.71 million viewers) and CBS running an NCIS repeat (5.15 million), a Criminal Minds repeat (5.20 million) and a 48 Hours repeat (5.80 million). FOX only beat NBC, which aired The Wiz repeat that did a 0.4 in the demo and 1.59 million viewers.

The UFC also had to compete with an NFL game (Cowboys vs. Jets) on NFL Network, as well as people going to the movies to see the new Star Wars movie which has been crushing all-time box office numbers since it came out Thursday night.

Actual numbers will be released on Monday or Tuesday.