By Jake Donovan
The Saturday afternoon debut of PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) on NBC from May 23 saw a marginal dip in ratings from a similarly aired edition on CBS earlier this month.
The live card from Boston—which saw James ‘Chunky’ DeGale score a unanimous decision over Andre Dirrell—drew a 0.85 overnight rating according to Nielsen Media Research. Such numbers generally trend upwards for sporting events, as final Nielsen numbers will not be made available until Wednesday morning due to the holiday weekend.
DeGale made boxing history in becoming the first ever Olympic Gold medalist from Great Britain to win a major championship. The 12-round nod over Dirrell came with the prize of a vacant super middleweight title, serving as a fitting conclusion to his stateside debut.
The event marked the first edition of PBC on NBC during the afternoon, as previous editions on the network have run during prime time.
PBC shows have also aired twice on CBS during Saturday afternoons, with the April 4 network debut—featuring World light heavyweight king Adonis Stevenson in a 12-round win over Sakio Bika—pulling in more than 1.6 million viewers. The final tally was up from the projected 1.4 million viewers upon the initial ratings release, subscribing to the theory that there stands a chance of improved numbers for the May 23 telecast.
The May 9 show on CBS from Hidalgo, Texas—a doubleheader both featuring fighters from the United Kingdom (England’s Jamie McDonnell in a narrow win over Tomoki Kameda, and Scotland’s Ricky Burns dropping a heartbreaker to local favorite Omar Figueroa)—produced a 0.9 rating and roughly 1.3 million viewers.
Dirrell—who fights under Al Haymon’s PBC banner—and DeGale both appeared for the first time on a PBC event. The series has been featured on NBC,NBC Sports, CBS and will make its third appearance on Spike TV this Friday, May 29. Topping the show, Amir Khan faces Chris Algieri in a battle of former 140 lb. titlists.
PBC returns to network TV on back-to-back dates in June. Adrien Broner faces Shawn Porter on June 20 in Las Vegas—airing live in primetime on NBC. A special Father’s Day edition of PBC on CBS airs on June 21, with former 130 lb. titlist Rances Barthelemy moving up to 140 lbs., where he will take on Antonio DeMarco in the afternoon headliner.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox