By Jake Donovan

The January 23 debut of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox in prime time suggest a trend back in the right direction, given the early-round Nielsen ratings published that do not factor in pre-empted coverage in several Northeast regions.

Danny Garcia's 12-round win over Robert Guerrero generated a preliminary average of 2.259 million viewers in headlining the first primetime boxing event on Fox since 1998. The show aired live from Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Opening the televised event, Dominic Breazeale overcame an early knockdown to force Amir Mansour to retire on his stool after five rounds. Mansour was ahead in the fight, but suffered a severely fractured jaw and was swallowing his own blood after having bit through his tongue.

The co-feature saw Sammy Vasquez claim a sixth-round stoppage win over Aron Martinez, who was unable to continue due to an injured left elbow that left him with numbing pain in his arm.

Not yet factored into the ratings is the amount of viewers who tuned in on alternate outlets for areas in Northeastern United States, who were denied live coverage. A massive snowstorm raged through the Northeast, prompting local Fox affiliates to stick with live storm coverage in lieu of carrying the live boxing feed.

Guerrero (33-4-1, 18KOs) has now served as the B-side headliner for the launching of the PBC series on two separate free-to-air networks. The former featherweight and super featherweight titlist - who has also held interim belts at lightweight and welterweight - faced Keith Thurman in the very first PBC card to hit airwaves, with their 12-round welterweight title fight airing last March on NBC.

The bout generated an average of more than 3 million viewers, peaking at 4 million in serving in the highest rated TV fight of 2015. Guerrero dropped a 12-round decision to Thurman, rebounding (barely) with a controversial 10-round win over Martinez last June, which aired live on NBC in Saturday afternoon coverage.

Garcia (32-0, 18KOs) has now headlined on three separate networks under the PBC umbrella. Always a strong ratings pull on cable TV, the unbeaten Philly boxer - now a two-division titlist, having previously served as the World super lightweight champ - barely edged Lamont Peterson last April, with their bout airing live in primetime on NBC in front of an average of 2.9 million viewers, peaking at 3.4 million viewers.

While both numbers were a noticeable decline from Thurman-Guerrero, Garcia was able to help ESPN trend upward with his August 1 primetime headliner. Three weeks after Thurman's 7th round stoppage of Luis Collazo underwhelmed in the premiere of PBC on ESPN, Garcia's placement saw an increase in viewership as his 9th round stoppage of Paul Malignaggi drew an average of 1.073 million viewers and a peak audience of 1.5 millon viewers.

In headlining the first primetime boxing event on Fox in 18 years, the telecast performed on par with the network's primetime college football coverage, as well as the most recent primetime offering of UFC Fight Night on Fox last December.

It also improved upon the last PBC primetime telecast. The December 12 PBC on NBC primetime event - headlined by Omar Figueroa's 12-round win over Antonio Demarco - was the lone entry of the series whose viewership average on the night failed to crack the two-million mark. Preliminary numbers for PBC on Fox have improved nearly 15% from the previous PBC primetime telecast, presenting a positive starting point on which to build for future telecasts.

The next installment of PBC on Fox has not yet been announced. PBC on FS1 - which has regularly run since its launch in September - returns February 9, with unbeaten 2012 U.S. Olympian Jamel Herring facing Luis Flores in a 10-round bout at Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

All aforementioned ratings data provided by Nielsen Media Research.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox