UFC 258 prelim ratings down dramatically from UFC 257 card however quiet top sports activities program on Saturday

The UFC 258 prelims ended Saturday evening as cable’s absolute best-rated sports activities program with coverage of the 2nd impeachment trial of outmoded president Donald Trump dominating the evening overall.

Per the Nielsen Ratings Machine, the UFC 258 prelims headlined by Anthony Hernandez pulling of a dramatic submission over grappling champion Rodolfo Vieira, ended the evening with 794,000 realistic viewers over the 2-hour broadcast on ESPN. The prelims scored a .28 rating within the coveted 18-49 year venerable demographic, which modified into correct adequate for No. 13 overall on cable for Saturday.

Every other broadcast that did better than the UFC 258 prelims were centered on the impeachment hearing with CNN’s coverage all the map via the 4 p.m. hour on Saturday receiving the absolute best ratings with 3.723 million viewers on realistic.

The prelims for first pay-per-survey of 2021, which featured Dustin Poirier taking on Conor McGregor, averaged 1.433 million viewers. While those numbers are on the subject of double what the prelims for UFC 258 averaged, it’s not sudden focused on the drawing vitality of the pay-per-survey predominant match with UFC 257 likely going on as certainly one of many absolute best-selling playing cards of all-time with more than 1 million buys.

The UFC 258 prelims, which ended in the pay-per-survey card the keep Kamaru Usman defeated Gilbert Burns within the predominant match, were quiet the crash rated sports activities program for Saturday on cable before a NASCAR Xfinity Series match on FOX Sports 1 as properly as a pair of college basketball games on ESPN earlier within the day.

High Imperfect Boxing, which followed the UFC broadcast on ESPN, ended the evening with 584,000 viewers on realistic.

Total, the UFC 258 prelims quiet ended with better ratings than the prelims for the final observe four pay-per-survey playing cards for the UFC in 2020.

The UFC will unbiased for even better ratings with the next pay-per-survey card on March 6 as UFC 259 can be capped off by outmoded bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz taking on Casey Kenney within the featured bout before a pay-per-survey headlined by a trio of title fights including the champion vs. champion showdown between Jan Blachowicz and Israel Adesanya.