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Bellator MMA Live (88) ratings: 807,000 viewers

February 8, 2013 by Jason Cruz 30 Comments

Bellator ratings were up this week as Thursday night’s show scored a viewer average of 807,000 via Television By Numbers.  It received a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 adult demographic.

Bellator drew a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 male demographic, which is the highest of the season. Also, the instant replay following the live airing drew another 268,000 viewers. The combined total viewership for the night was 1.075M.

Bellator’s lead in, TNA Wrestling, scored 1.4 million viewers with a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 adult demo.

Bellator 85:  938,000 viewers
Bellator 86:  812,000 viewers
Bellator 87:  705,000 viewers
Bellator 88:  807,000 viewers

Season Average: 815,500 viewers
Season Average (dvr+3): 864,000 viewers


Payout Perspective:

Good rebound for Bellator from last week’s dip.  It did go up against the Lakers-Celtics game on TNT although it was a blowout at the time Bellator hit the air.  Bellator is up 14% from last week while TNA was down from last week.  It would be interesting to know the effectiveness of the lead-in.  Obviously there are viewers turning the channel after TNA based on its viewership versus Bellator (almost half this week), but there have to be some that stick around to watch Bellator.

If we were to go head to head in comparing Bellator versus TUF 17, both have dipped in ratings since its debut but Bellator is the first to make a recovery.

Filed Under: Bellator, ratings, Spike, TV

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sampson Simpson says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:07 pm

    Damn I am smart!!!

    Reply
  2. Chris says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    Smart how?

    Reply
  3. Random Dude says

    February 8, 2013 at 7:49 pm

    Good to have you back Sampson. Don’t make anymore bets like that though. As good as Bellator is doing, it is still MMA, and MMA’s overall popularity has peaked, so don’t expect anything amazing. I figured good for Bellator would be 450,000-500,000 regular viewers each week. 700,000+ each week ain’t bad at all.

    Reply
  4. Weezy02 says

    February 9, 2013 at 8:45 am

    “Damn I am smart!!!”

    But not honorable. You’ve broken your promise. Only as good as your word.

    Reply
  5. Weezy02 says

    February 9, 2013 at 8:47 am

    Good showing for Bellator. Posted this on another thread but thought it might be appropriate here as well:

    TVbythenumbers only rates the top 100 shows on cable for any given day, so I’ve taken those stats for this week so far (Sunday – Thursday) and below are the ratings for sports programming on cable this week (two MMA shows in the top 8 is very impressive in my opinion):

    1st – NBA on TNT (Thursday at 8:00); 2.6 million viewers; 1.1 in Adults 18-49
    2nd- College Basketball on ESPN (Tuesday at 9:00); 2.4 million; 0.8 Adults 18-49
    3rd – The Ultimate Fighter on FX (Tuesday at 9:00); 1.2 million; 0.7 Adults 18-49
    4th – NBA on TNT (Thursday at 10:30); 1.3 million; 0.6 Adults 18-49
    5th – College Basketball on ESPN (Sunday at 2:00); 1.3 million; 0.5 Adults 18-49
    6th – NBA on ESPN (Wednesday at 9:00); 1.1 million; 0.5 Adults 18-49
    7th – College Basketball on ESPN (Thursday at 7:00); 1.3 million; 0.4 Adults 18-49
    8th – Bellator MMA on SPIKE (Thursday at 10:00); 0.8 million; 0.4 Adults 18-49

    Said it before and will say it again. MMA has become a legitimate cable sports property.

    Reply
  6. Sampson Simpson says

    February 9, 2013 at 11:47 am

    Over 800k was the bet. How is this not honorable?

    Reply
  7. Chris says

    February 9, 2013 at 12:11 pm

    What was the bet Weezy? I thought it was something about week 2 or 3 not week 4.

    Anyway Sampson Simpson doesnt seem like someone who honors his word but who cares, he hasnt broken any site rules so he is entitled to post here.

    Plus it makes the site more interesting having a paid Bellator stand/Zuffa hater.

    Reply
  8. Weezy02 says

    February 9, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    “Over 800k was the bet. How is this not honorable?”

    Because the bet was made before the prior week’s show. It did just over 700K. Even with =DVR 3 day figures it still did well under 800K.

    Reply
  9. Sampson Simpson says

    February 9, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    Ok. My mistake. I didnt see any post here about 700k. Im outta here…

    Reply
  10. anti-sampson says

    February 9, 2013 at 2:01 pm

    everybody hates you sampson

    Reply
  11. Brain Smasher says

    February 9, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    For the record i dont remember the bet being made. I curtainly didnt accept the bet so i didnt think it was official. The reason i didnt except the bet is because Bellators ratings right now are very dependant on TNA ratings. Even though i knew week 3 Bellator ratings would be weak. I wasnt sure what TNA had panned. So i wasnt going to make the bet since i dont follow Pro Wrestling.

    The comment section can always use a Boxing/Bellator Shill/Troll so have at it Sampson!

    Reply
  12. Steve says

    February 9, 2013 at 7:53 pm

    Sampson Simpson will not honor his word. He will come back to bash on any Zuffa news and throw childish insults at anyone who disagrees with him.

    Reply
  13. Sampson Simpson says

    February 10, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    I leave it up for votes

    Reply
  14. Sampson Simpson says

    February 10, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    I vote for me.

    I win!

    *pats self on back*

    Reply
  15. Machiel Van says

    February 11, 2013 at 7:52 am

    Sampson Simpson’s bet was that Bellator 87 would do at least 800,000 average viewers for the live telecast on January 31. It did 705,000 average viewers. You lost Sampson, please don’t come back.

    Reply
  16. Sampson Simpson says

    February 11, 2013 at 9:05 am

    SHut up michelle, You’re a woman

    Reply
  17. Diego says

    February 11, 2013 at 9:23 am

    Is anyone really surprised that Simple Sampson isn’t going to live up to the terms of the bet? It was a stupid bet Sampson, as pretty much everyone on this site could see except you. And you lost. So basically, you’re now and forever Brain Smasher’s bitch even though he is generously letting you out of the bet.

    In other news, ~800k per show is solid for Bellator. I don’t know how Spike is measuring success, but I think that’s respectable and should mean we get more Bellator in the future.

    I noticed that there is a replay immediately after the first showing (at leas on the East Coast), does anyone know what viewership the replay is getting?

    With the right investment we could see Bellator begin to average over 1M views. I’m curious to see how a PPV would do. I don’t see myself paying $60 for a Bellator card even if all of their champions were on it. I’ve become accustomed to getting Bellator for free, so why would I pay? Certainly I don’t think they could do more than 1 or 2 cards per year. We’ll see where they go from here, but so far they have to be happy with the results.

    Reply
  18. Machiel Van says

    February 11, 2013 at 10:06 am

    Sampson Simpson’s bet was that Bellator 87 would do at least 800,000 average viewers for the live telecast on January 31. It did 705,000 average viewers. You lost Sampson, please don’t come back.

    Reply
  19. Sampson Simpson says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:03 am

    Women abound here… just so you know

    Reply
  20. Machiel Van says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:45 am

    Sampson Simpson’s bet was that Bellator 87 would do at least 800,000 average viewers for the live telecast on January 31. It did 705,000 average viewers. You lost Sampson, please don’t come back

    Reply
  21. Sampson Simpson says

    February 11, 2013 at 1:11 pm

    Michelle Van = Geektastic

    Reply
  22. Machiel Van says

    February 11, 2013 at 1:45 pm

    Sampson Simpson’s bet was that Bellator 87 would do at least 800,000 average viewers for the live telecast on January 31. It did 705,000 average viewers. You lost Sampson, please don’t come back.

    Reply
  23. Random Dude says

    February 11, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Another vote that Sampson stays. His bet was that either he or BrainSmasher would leave. BrainSmasher acknowledged he did not take on the bet, so Sampson should stay. You can’t have a bet where only one side can lose.

    Reply
  24. Brain Smasher says

    February 11, 2013 at 6:12 pm

    But at the same time Sampson stayed off a week and that action and his comments when he comeback can be seen as an acknowledgement of a agreed bet and that the bet didnt require my involvement. I never accepted. But that doesnt mean there wasnt an understanding between Samson and the others that he would leave if it didnt do 800,000. Like i said his actions hint at such an agreement.

    Reply
  25. Machiel Van says

    February 12, 2013 at 7:52 am

    Sampson freely accepted the bet and didn’t wait to see whether or not Brain Smasher accepted (nor did he demand that BS do so for the bet to be in effect), so that’s irrelevant in my opinion.

    Reply
  26. Sampson Simpson says

    February 12, 2013 at 10:10 am

    Michelle’s opinion doesnt count

    Reply
  27. anti-sampson says

    February 12, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    sampson i think bellator’s pepe is shoved up your toilet hole.

    Reply
  28. Sampson Simpson says

    February 12, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    Whats that? No FS1 on comcast?

    Reply
  29. Chris says

    February 12, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    What are you talkign about Simple Simps? Speed is being turned into FS1 and it is already in 80 plus million homes and now Comcast just agreed to a deal with Fox to add Fuel/FS2 into more homes.

    And no its not women around here its you not being a man of your word plus you are a troll thats why everyone hates you.

    I’ll bet anything this guy has been kicked out of all the major mma sites, BE, Sherdog, UG etc he hsa probably been banned from them all for trolling.

    Reply
  30. Sampson Simpson says

    February 12, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    August = beginning of the end for Zuffa

    Reply

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