Garcia-Guerrero preliminary ratings for debut of PBC on FOX

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Danny Garcia, Robert Guerrero,The ratings are in and it looks like the debut of PBC on FOX, which featured Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight championship, garnered 2.24 million viewers according to early Nielsen ratings published by Zap2it.

 

NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS was the highest-rated show on network TV in that time slot (8pm ET), but it was also beaten out by U.S. Figure Skating Championships (NBC) (8-11 p.m.) which gained 3.69 million. However, FOX’s boxing debut was the highest rated program within the Adults 18-49 demographic amongst the aforementioned networks in that time slot with a 0.7 rating.

 

It pales in comparison to the 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic that ABC’s coverage of the NBA achieved with their broadcast of the Cavaliers-Bulls matchup, which started at 8:30pm (ET). Still, consider that ABC aired an NBA “Kickoff Show” a half-hour before the game started and you can definitely see some optimism in those numbers.

 

FOX aired three fights on the PBC card, beginning with an entertaining heavyweight fight between Dominic Breazeale and Amir Mansour. The network is no stranger to combat sports and airs UFC cards semi-regularly since beginning a partnership with the MMA promotion in 2011.

 

Guerrero was part of the debut of the PBC series on NBC, too, which was also the debut of PBC as a whole last March when he lost to welterweight contender Keith Thurman. The fight with Garcia marks Guerrero’s second loss on network TV.

 

These ratings are preliminary and do not reflect certain aspects of Saturday’s programming. For instance, the weekend snowstorm in the Northeast area of the US impacted viewership, but to what degree is unknown. According to Jake Donovan of Boxingscene, local markets were forced to continue with live coverage of the storm as opposed to airing the boxing broadcast. But, as Donovan reported, it is worth noting that these preliminary numbers indicate a 15% spike from the last PBC on network TV broadcast in December on NBC.

 

A full report of the ratings, including “peak numbers,” are expected later today.