World Series of Fighting put on its second show last weekend as part of its new multi-fight deal with NBC Sports Network, and the ratings yielded positive results.
The second card, which featured a heavyweight main event between Anthony Johnson and former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski, pulled in 210,000 average viewers over their two-hour-plus broadcast on Saturday night, according to a report from Nielsen TV ratings.
Those numbers are up from the inaugural World Series of Fighting show that averaged 198,000 viewers for its debut card in November 2012.
Now, to put that into perspective for how that compares to other MMA broadcasts, there’s a lot to look at in those scenarios.
World Series of Fighting broadcasts on the NBC Sports Network, which was previously known as Versus, a network that used to air UFC shows prior to its new deal with FOX television that began in 2012.
When the UFC was on Versus, its shows averaged just over 868,000 viewers per card. The WEC (which is also owned by Zuffa, the same company that owns the UFC) previously aired its cards on Versus as well, and its shows averaged just over 600,000 viewers per episode.
The World Series of Fighting cards have come close to the weekly average viewership marks that Bellator Fighting Championships had when it aired programming on MTV2, although its numbers on Spike TV have dramatically increased since that time.
Programming on the NBC Sports Network as a whole has pulled in ratings all over the board, from Olympic coverage that gave it its highest viewership marks ever to original in-house programming like hunting and outdoor shows that draw a much smaller audience.
Overall, the World Series of Fighting 2 card moving its numbers up, even in the most modest accord, is a positive for the fledgling promotion. It has to be noted also that part of the World Series of Fighting 2 card ran head-to-head with the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that aired on CBS (until 10:43 p.m. ET), which is one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
The next World Series of Fighting card is expected to take place in Las Vegas in June and will feature the return of former UFC welterweight contender Jon Fitch as well as knockout artist Tyrone Spong.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All info was emailed directly from Neilson Ratings
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