Saturday night’s Showtime Championship Boxing telecast of Miguel Cotto vs. Austin Trout earned record viewership for boxing on the premium network in two categories. The three-fight telecast drew an average audience of 1.047 million viewers, the highest since 2004 when Nielsen began to separately measure premium television multiplex channels. The main event, Cotto vs. Trout, peaked at nearly 1.4 million viewers, the highest peak on record since 2009 when data on viewership for individual bouts first became available.
The first replay of Saturday’s record-setting, three-fight telecast will air tonight, Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME and is available at SHOWTIME ON DEMAND.
In a dramatic contest that featured swings in momentum for both men, Austin Trout defeated Miguel Cotto via unanimous decision in front of 13,000+ at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 1. Cotto, the very popular Puerto Rican star, came into the fight with a more accomplished resume than Trout. Cotto was 7-0 at MSG, 37-3, with 30 KOs overall and entering his 21st consecutive world title fight.
Trout had never fought at the famed New York arena and entered the ring undefeated in his relatively obscure career at 25-0. Trout scored what many consider a significant upset to retain his WBA Super Welterweight World Championship and hand the legendary Cotto his first loss at Madison Square Garden.
Epilogue, the second of two episodes of ALL ACCESS: Cotto vs. Trout premieres Saturday, Dec. 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME, immediately prior to the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast featuring Amir Khan and Carlos Molina. Epilogue takes viewers behind the scenes of the Cotto vs. Trout fight week build-up and offers a rare glimpse into the raw emotion and drama during Saturday’s world championship event and its aftermath.
