Saturday night’s World Series of Fighting show on NBC Sports, headlined by Tyrone Spong’s decision win over Angel DeAnda, did the company’s best numbers to date with a 0.23 rating and 264,000 viewers.
The show, from Ontario, Calif., also pulled an 0.18 in the 18-49 demo and an 0.30 in Males 18-49.
The numbers are slightly below the 300,000 viewer level that the lowest rated World Extreme Cagefighting shows did on the same station, when it was known as Versus, and above most Bellator events when they were on MTV 2, which had similar reach.
The number is well under the network’s second quarter prime time average of 619,000 viewers, but that’s misleading because of a strong showing this year of the NHL playoffs. Before hockey season, in the fourth quarter of 2012, the network over three months only had two shows that topped 200,000 viewers.
Considering the rating was drawn on a show that featured no fighters in the key matches with major UFC names and still set its record by a significant margin, it has to be considered a success. The lone former UFC name on the bill, Tyson Griffin, lost to J.Z. Cavalcante in the television opener.
Besides the main event, the key matches were bantamweight Marlon Moraes, a Brazilian who has been impressive on previous WSOF shows, facing newcomer Brandon Hempleman; one-armed fighter Nick Newell’s debut with the group and the novelty of company president Ray Sefo, a former kickboxing star, fighting.
The previous three WSOF shows were headlined by former UFC stars, Andrei Arlovski on the first two events, and Jon Fitch on the third show.
The debut show on Nov. 3 headlined by Arlovski’s win over Devin Cole did 198,000 viewers. The second show on March 23, headlined by Arlovski’s loss to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, did 210,000 viewers. The most recent show, on June 14, where Fitch was upset by former UFC fighter Josh Burkman, did 201,000 viewers, but that was on a harder to draw Friday night.