RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 30: Bantamweight fighters Ronda Rousey (L) of the United States and Bethe Correia of Brazil face off during Ultimate Media Day at Sheraton Hotel on July 30, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Rousey Wave Swells Numbers For FOX Sports 1

08/04/2015

FOX Sports 1 reaped the benefits this weekend from the lead up to UFC 190: Rousey vs. Correia, the much anticipated main event, which saw the sport’s most dominant athlete, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, knock out her opponent, Bethe Correia, in 34 seconds.

Saturday night’s UFC preliminary bouts (8:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET) averaged 1,322,000 viewers, making it the third most-watched Pay-Per-View preliminary card in FOX Sports 1 history, and took the top spot in primetime among all ad supported cable sports networks. The event peaked at 1,599,000 viewers (9:15 PM – 9:30 PM ET). Saturday’s prelims were up +13% on household rating (1.04 vs. 0.92) and +10% on average audience (1,322,000 vs. 1,205,000) over the prelims for Rousey’s last main event PPV card (2/28/15) on FOX Sports 1 in which she defeated challenger Cat Zingano at UFC 184 in 14 seconds.

FOX Sports 1’s UFC 190 PREFIGHT SHOW on Saturday (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET) tallied 518,000 viewers making it the third most-watched PPV prefight in FOX Sports 1 history. Following Rousey’s dominance, many viewers switched back over to FOX Sports 1 for the network’s UFC 190 POSTFIGHT SHOW (1:42 AM – 2:42 AM ET), which delivered 438,000 viewers ranking as the second most-watched UFC 190 POSTFIGHT SHOW in FOX Sports 1 history.

In the buildup to the fight on Friday, a repeat of UFC MAIN EVENT: UFC 168 ROUSEY VS TATE on Friday (9:00-10:00 PM ET) scored 388,000 viewers, marking the program’s most-watched airing on FOX Sports 1. At 10:00 PM ET, FOX Sports 1 televised a special edition of UFC Tonight focusing on Rousey, which delivered 396,000 viewers making it the most-watched edition of UFC TONIGHT ever.