How Much Might Forgettable Thurman-Garcia Fight Damage Future Viewership?

[Ruthless-RKO]

The Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia ratings were so impressive network television executives must take notice. That much appears clear.

A boxing match televised in prime time on free TV hasn’t drawn a peak audience of 5.1 million viewers or an average audience of 3.74 million viewers since 1998. That last part is somewhat misleading because boxing barely has been televised in prime time on free TV over the past 19 years.

That trend started just two years ago, when Al Haymon began purchasing time on CBS, NBC and FOX in an effort to expose boxers to bigger audiences than fights on HBO and Showtime can attract. Nevertheless, if boxing programming can consistently draw numbers similar to Thurman-Garcia, network executives will view it as content worth buying, not filler funded by Haymon’s heavily scrutinized, nine-figure venture.

If a casual boxing fan gave Thurman-Shawn Porter a shot on CBS eight months ago, odds are he or she would’ve wanted to watch boxing again. The welterweights delivered one of the best action fights of 2016 – a competitive, compelling battle full of exciting exchanges.

If a casual fight fan took that same approach to watching Thurman-Garcia on CBS, changing channels clearly crossed his or her mind. For all the promotional propaganda about Thurman-Garcia being something special, it wasn’t.

CBS doesn’t have another boxing card on its schedule for the remainder of 2017, thus it could take some time to determine how much the lack of action in Thurman-Garcia damages future viewership.

Rest of the Article here..

[Ruthless-RKO]

I don't really agree with Keith Idec, usually I do, but here, I think it was good fight.

The secret to good viewership numbers is putting on fights that the fans want to see. I think as long as Boxing gives us fights we want to see, hardcore and casual fans will tune in..

[Tanzio]

Not at all.

[Enlightened-One]

There have been lots of eagerly-anticipated fights throughout the course of history, where fans have been highly-excited to witness, which ultimately played out to be dull affairs (i.e. Mayweather-Pacquiao).

Sometimes the most action-packed, exciting and enjoyable fights are the ones you don't expect (i.e. Chisora-Whyte).

Fighters are going to do whatever it takes to win a fight and they're unlikely to voluntarily lessen their chances of victory by abandoning the most effective gameplan in preference to one that is crowd-pleasing and also places them in a position of vulnerability.

The above principles apply to all combat sports, not just boxing... and the audience will surely appreciate the blatantly obvious fact that not every fight will play out like Hagler-Hearns.

One lacklustre, but highly-viewed, fight is not going to affect the PBC's ratings.