| Scoreboard for Sat. May 31, 2008 |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 4.74 | 4.35 | 4.31 | 4.23 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 1.6/6 | 1.5/5 | 1.6/6 | 1.1/4 |
The MMA Saturday Night Fights Elite XC event action scored 4.3 million viewers between 9pm-11pm, but it wasn’t enough to topple FOX’s dynamic Saturday duo of Cops and America’s Most Wanted. The MMA bout had small total viewer numbers but it hit the target with the coveted 18-34 youth, particularly the elusive 18-34 year old male television viewer.
The event had 1.9/6 18-49 rating (36% higher than the crimetime drama repeats) , a 1.9/7 among adults 18-34 (more than twice the season average .9 rating ) and a 2.6/10 rating among men 18-34, more than triple the season average of 0.7. In the 25-54 demo the fights had a 1.9/6 overall and a 2.6/8 among men.
CBS is bound to be pretty happy. I wonder if more young people would watch the CBS Evening News if Kimbo Slice was the anchor. Kidding. Kind of. Actually as our friends at the Silicon Alley Insider noted, Sumner Redstone isn’t particularly thrilled about the matches being aired on the broadcast net.
As alluded to earlier, the primary bout (Slice/Thompson) took place after 11pm, so the final numbers will be even bigger (and again are not included in these numbers) as that was no doubt the most watched portion of the fight. We’ll know the full numbers for the entire airing by tomorrow.
The NHL Stanley Cup Finals matchup where the Pittsburgh Penguins lost game 4 to the Detroit Red Wings to go down three games to one had 4.31 million viewers and a 1.6/6 in the demo, tying FOX for first.
Kimbo was massively more popular than NHL in the LA Market
Saturday Night’s Details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millions) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | ABC | Movie: The Rookie (R ) | 4.23 | 1.1/4 |
| CBS | CSI (R ) | 4.46 | 0.9/4 | |
| NBC | NHL Stanley Cup Finals | 4.31 | 1.6/6 | |
| FOX | Cops | 4.05 | 1.4/6 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Saturday Night Fights (9p-11p) | 4.30 | 1.9/6 |
| FOX | America’s Most Wanted | 5.44 | 1.7/6 |
Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
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June 1st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Now that the image is in my head somebody MUST Photoshop a Katie Couric picture with Kimbo hair.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:39 pm
I agree with your comments about the NFL or Lakers. But the Lakers are more are an appeal to the west coast and their game would be 6:00 p.m. locally. The NHL does not have the luxury and to get the casual viewer 7 or 8 pm local start would only help. This is just reality the league has to face. This was the first time on CBS and if it was on every week or 3rd day the ratings would drop. The same would be for other sports as well. If the NFL played 30 games and twice a week the ratiings would not be as high.Football is most appealing cause it plays the fewest games and once a week and it is easy to have betting pools etc. The more games the less appealing each game is for must see. The NHL games are doing just fine, and are heading in the right direction. They belong on ESPN2 and ESPN and maybe all deciding games of the final on ABC.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Garry, for a variety of reasons but mostly the ongoing promotion it would receive, I agree with you about NHL being better off on ESPN for the long haul. also agree that the limited # of games is a huge part of the NFL's appeal.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
Those are actually good numbers for NBC on Saturday nite. I'm sure the hockey viewers helped the MMA rating since the game was over before the “big” fight took place. I actually watched both. The hockey game got similiar ratings to what ABC got for the Celts/Pistons game last weekend. I'm not saying hockey is more popular than basketball but those ratings are pretty good for an “unpopular” sport.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Hey, when will you get the Detroit vs Pittsburgh markets ratings. I'm curious to see who won out.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Hi Julia, I'm not sure. it's not the type of data we receive directly from Nielsen (local market data) but hopefully I'll be able to track something down.