UFC 326 earned a healthy linear television audience in its debut on CBS.
Saturday’s UFC 326 broadcast on CBS, which featured select preliminary bouts and the early portion of the main card between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET, averaged 2.47 million viewers, making it the most-watched UFC telecast on linear television in 10 years. The audience marks an extreme improvement over UFC’s linear TV average last year on the ESPN networks (661,000 viewers). The portion of the simulcast that featured the main card averaged 2.81 million viewers (9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET).
The CBS audience figures, measured by Nielsen, do not include those who watched the fights on Paramount+, which is the primary platform for UFC under its new media rights agreement. The main event, Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira, aired exclusively on Paramount+.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal notes that in 2008, when CBS aired its first MMA telecast headlined by Kimbo Slice, the network averaged a little over four million viewers. That fight, however, was exclusive to CBS.
Per CBS, the two-hour simulcast improved the network’s season-to-date viewership in the same Saturday primetime window by 30%, including massive increases in the key demos. Adults 18-34 saw a 208% increase, while adults 18-49 saw a 190% increase versus this season’s Saturday night window.
2.47 million viewers would prove to be a solid addition to Paramount+’s overall audience for the card. While those numbers are not immediately available, one could presume a significant portion of UFC fans watched on the streamer, considering it was the only place to find the main event. UFC 324, the first card to stream exclusively on Paramount+, averaged nearly five million viewers. The streamer reportedly gained about one million new subscribers the day of its first UFC broadcast.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.