Bellator 153 drew 618,000 viewers on Friday night on Spike TV according to Sports TV Ratings. The rating is a modest 6% increase from last week’s tape delayed show Saturday night from Italy.
The main event was the highly anticipated promotional debut of Benson Henderson. Unfortunately, the former UFC lightweight champion was dominated by current welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov.
The sports cable landscape was dominated by the NBA Playoffs Friday night as 2.6M viewers each watched the Pistons-Cavs and Spurs-Grizzlies on Friday night on ESPN. Each game overlapped with the Bellator event.
Bellator 153 also drew 287,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 demo.
Payout Perspective:
One would have hoped for a better rating with Benson Henderson’s debut. You would have also hoped for a better fight from Henderson but Koreshkov was just better at 170. Excluding Bellator 149’s tentpole rating of 1.96M viewers, the average viewership this year over 5 events is 653,000 viewers.
Benson didn’t just lose he got beat up, poor numbers considering he’s supposed to be their main draw.
Bellator> PBC on Spike. Hahaha.
Even though 2016 for Bellator has been a downslide in the numbers, they still kill WSOF by a long shot.
It goes to show you that the biggest numbers for Bellator will be the Kimbos, the Gracies, the Shamrocks, and the names rather than the more prime fighters