It isn’t often that a replay out-performs a premiere, but that’s what happened when FOX aired promotional programming late Saturday night for the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch.

According to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday, the network’s replay of the second episode of “Inside Wilder Vs. Fury II” drew an average audience of 767,000, exactly 300,000 more than when the episode premiered the previous Saturday afternoon. The half-hour replay aired from 11-11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, whereas it first aired from 4:30-5 p.m. ET on February 1.

Viewership dipped for the debut of the third episode of “Inside Wilder Vs. Fury II,” which aired from 11:30 p.m. ET Saturday until midnight, but the average viewership of 530,000 still was higher than the premiere of the second episode. The premiere of the third episode went head-to-head with a live showing of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” as well as the main event of Showtime’s three-bout broadcast Saturday night, Gary Russell Jr. versus Tugstsogt Nyambayar.

Nielsen also revealed Tuesday that an average of 361,000 viewers watched the Russell-Nyambayar bout. Russell (31-1, 18 KOs), the second longest-reigning champion in boxing, beat Mongolia’s Nyambayar (11-1, 9 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round, 126-pound fight for Russell’s WBC featherweight title at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

FOX, one of four major broadcast networks in the United States, is available in nearly 120 million American homes. Showtime, a premium cable channel, has approximately 29 million subscribers in the U.S.

FOX’s fourth and final episode of “Inside Wilder Vs. Fury II” is set to debut Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. It’ll also air on ESPN for the first time Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

ESPN and FOX are partners in this joint pay-per-view venture. The 12-round rematch between Alabama’s Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs), who owns the WBC heavyweight title, and England’s Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs), boxing’s lineal champion, is set for February 22 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

As BoxingScene.com reported last week, two commercials for Wilder-Fury II were seen by more than 100 million people apiece in the United States during FOX’s telecast of Super Bowl LIV on February 2 from Miami. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.