Lineker vs. Dodson draws lowest ratings for of the year for Saturday Fight Night’s
Despite appearing to be a good card on paper, UFC Fight Night: Dodson vs. Lineker on Saturday night pulled the lowest ratings for any Fight Night card this year.
The event had a paltry 657,000 viewers on FS 1 Saturday night, which made it the lowest for a Saturday night prime time show so far this year, according to David Meltzer.
Compared to the last two UFC Fight Nights, the Cyborg vs. Lansberg headlined event pulled 1,109,000 viewers for the card as a whole and 1,326,000 for the aforementioned main event.
In fact, the only event that has done worse ratings during 2016 was on July 13th, when Lineker headlined the card against Michael McDonald, an event that drew 609,000 viewers. It should be noted however that the Lineker vs. McDonald Fight Night took place on a Wednesday and was the fourth UFC event in over a weeks time-span.
Whatever the reasons are behind these low ratings, the one common denominator is John Lineker, a Brazilian bantamweight who’s lack of English appears to hurt his ability to draw viewers, despite his very fan-friendly style of fighting.
Meltzer also reported that Saturday night’s post-fight show did just 250,000 viewers compared to 348,000 the week before.
What do you think is the reason for Saturday’s dismal viewership? Do you think that Lineker’s inability to speak English hurts him as draw? Or is the over-saturation of UFC events creating a kind of MMA-burnout for fans and viewers? Sound off, PENN Nation!
