by David P. Greisman

This weekend’s debut of “Premiere Boxing Champions” pulled in an average of 3.13 million viewers during its two-and-a-half hour slot Saturday night on primetime NBC, according to Zap2it.com’s TV By the Numbers industry blog.

It was not the highest rating on primetime network TV that evening — a pair of CSI reruns and an episode of “48 Hours” outdid it on CBS with 3.42, 3.91 and 4.65 million, a rerun of “20/20” on ABC had 4.09 million, and a showing of “In An Instant” on ABC had 4.36 million.

Premiere Boxing Champions did outdo its 8 p.m. Eastern Time lead-in, “Caught on Camera With Nick Cannon,” which had 2.55 million; FOX’s “The Last Man on Earth” rerun, which had 2.13 million; and a rerun of “Sleepy Hollow” ON FOX, which had 1 million.
 
Nevertheless, PBC did lead in the coveted 18-49 demographic, pulling in a 1.0 rating and a 3 share.

TV By the Numbers added this caveat: “Due to the nature of live sports coverage, ratings for NBC (Boxing) are preliminary and likely to change in the final ratings.”

The NBC Sports public relations Twitter account said the top 10 market ratings for the broadcast were: Norfolk, Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Fort Myers, Florida; Sacramento, California; Dayton, Ohio; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com