Bellator MMA Live 95 received a viewer average of 901,000 viewers for a 0.4 rating according to Television By the Numbers. It tied for the the second-highest rating of the season.
Bellator 86: 812,000 viewers
Bellator 87: 705,000 viewers
Bellator 88: 807,000 viewers
Bellator 89: 719,000 viewers
Bellator 90: 737,000 viewers
Bellator 91: 901,000 viewers
Bellator 92: 741,000 viewers
Bellator 93: 748,000 viewers
Bellator 94: 713,000 viewers
Via MMA Fighting:
Overall, the show did a 0.64 rating in the Male 18-34 demo, the second best of the season, and an 0.7 in Males 18-49, tying the season’s best mark. The show may have been helped by its pro wrestling lead-in, TNA Impact, that did 1,425,000 viewers, up nine percent from what has been its number most weeks.
The show peaked with over 1 million viewers during the middleweight tournament final. The replay received 328,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Pat Curran’s performance showed that he could be one of the faces of Bellator. The average for the season ended at 793,000 which can be seen as a positive as the ratings were consistent throughout its first season on Spike TV; something that never happened when it was on MTV2. The ratings never fell below 700,000 this season which may be attributed to the lead-in and the marketing push. Certainly it can build on this season and with its reality show, “Fightmaster,” season 96 should do better.
I agree the ratings can be seen as a positive. But again the problem they have is stars. An entire season of tournaments in about every division. Yet how many fighters can we really name that we are excited to see that was created this season? Just one guy, Newton. The entire season to create fights for their champ and there is only 1 guy that has any interest behind him. While everyone who had a name or momentum got knocked out of the spotlight. Unfortunately this model will cause this to be the problem each season. That’s to many events and to many fights and to many names in the mix not to come away with a bigger boost to the hype of the contenders. There was 3 guys in the tournament with Newton that could have been brought along slowly and give them a handful of stars to work with. But they wasted them all inside 2 months. Now they will go into next season with no title fights anyone is dying to see and no one else of any value to depend on.
I LOVE MMA and would consider my self a geek but I can hardly name ANY Bellator fighters except for the one Dane (I’m Danish) they signed and the Brazilian Muaythai fighter Cosmo Alexandre (as I “come” from the Muaythai world).
The Bellator shows I’ve seen were quality but it’s like there is still this feeling: “This is not UFC / This is not as satisfying for my eyes as the UFC.”
I know more names than the typical fan. But the shows just have this empty feeling. Because of the format. Bellator is basically just a compilation of meaningless fights. I mean look at it this way. After all those events and fights. There is only 2 guys who have a purpose in each division. The champ and the tourney winner. There is no 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. Every other fighter is completely useless and by extention so is their fights.
If it was that “meaingless” as you ladies put it, nobody would be tuning in.
It would be garnering sub 300,000 viewers. Oops that’s UFC on Fueltv.
It was getting sub 300k viewers until it got a large portion of TNAs 1.4 million viewers who fall a sleep with their tv tuned to spike. No one cares about it and they have nothing to offer anyone.
That is one of many problems with MMA, very few meaningful names, and no real longevity for fighters. There is like 3 or 4 names in the whole sport and more people know of Dana White then the actual fighters, there is something seriously wrong with that. I must say the Bellator card had way more exciting fights than the dances that the UFC has been selling us lately. The UFC is too greedy and too power hungry to let more than a handful of fighters make a serious name for themselves. Thats no way to try to grow a sport.
Good numbers, Curran is becoming their top name.
Sampson, what are you gonna do what all UFC events are on FS1 pulling better ratings than Bellator? Your whole bu bu bu but Bellator does more than Fuel tv events will be worthless.
Gonna have to come up with something new, oh yeah thats right its gonna take 3 years for the UFC on FS1 to match Bellators ratings on Spike. LOL
and as other have mentioned that is a major problem with Bellator, running weekly events doesnt give them time to promote each event, the tournaments are so fast you really dont have time to get invested in a fighter.
Their model is flawed big time.
There is no way that UFC on FS1 does any sort of ratings out the gate.
Probably 500k at max.
The UFC on FS1 beating Bellator on Spike means nothing.
The question is can UFC on FS1 beat UFC on Spike ratings?
So far the FX/Fuel combo couldn’t do it…
Simpleton things Fox is canceling the UFC in 8 months. Shows what he knows.
What makes you think the UFC will only do 500k max on FS1? They will be in 90 million homes, UFC events on Fuel which is in 36 million homes airing events in teh afternoon on Sat have do ne 200k plus but they will only do 500k on FS1?
You are either the biggest troll on any mma site or the dumbest person on any mma site, not sure which.
And to Random Dude they dont need to beat Spikes ratings, they are getting more money from Fox, are on big Fox and are on PPV. They just need to what they are doing now, 1.3 to 2 million viewers for prelims and Fight nights nad they will be fine.
Also when you leave a network you built for a new one you have to start all over and build that network up. FX never was a good fit for sports imo, FS1 will be.
Sure they will probably experience a decrease in viewers at first while the network gets started, plus moving to Wed night live events you wont do as well as on Sat night but surrounded by real sports and having all programming on on network should help the UFC in the long term.
You guys gotta healthy debate going on here n I like it! A quick question Id to ask the staff of mmapayout is why there is no Bellator Payout Perspective? you could do one every month or every quarter. I for one would like to see a Payout Perspective every quarter esp during this first year launch, Id also like to hear more about the reality show n shows the have working with Randy(Gym Rescue) If anyone here has any kinda Bellator Payout Perspective I n others would like to hear it n im sure it will make for more healthy debates!. Thank you!!!
Sergio:
One was done for the season debut on Spike TV:
http://mmapayout.com/2013/01/payout-perspective-bellator-mma-makes-spike-tv-debut/
No worries, we will cover the reality TV show and analyze how Bellator is doing in Payout Perspectives as we move from season to season. The fact that they do weekly shows in venues and athletic commissions makes it tough to do one for every event.
Out the gate, that means from the get go for you women that cannot understand simple metaphors.
500k is realistic for UFC on FS1. It’s a channel with sub par content so why would it get great viewership?
Pretty simple, simpleton. The UFC has been on Spike, Verses, Ion, Fox, Fx, and Fuel, and Fox Sports back in the day and the UFC fan base has always followed them and had strong ratings. A big live show in Boston available in 90 million homes only getting 500k would be a big flop and history has shown that is very unlikey to happen.
UFC on Fuel 9 did like 250k viewers on Sat afternoon at 2pm on a network in 36 million homes.
FS1 will be in 90 million homes at launch and on in primetime on Weds.
You honestly believe they will only do 500k viewers for fight nights on FS1?
Will they do 2 million a show right away? No.
Will they a million a show to start? Yes. I can see them doing close to what they do on FX to start, maybe 1.3 to 1.8 mill average for Fight NIghts on Wed.
Yes its gonna take some time to build the network up, for people to find it, realize they have it etc but by 2014 after teh superbowl and the big launch I think they will be fine.
Being on a network with other real sports, having all their programming on one channel, UFC TOnight in primetime, countdowns, Primetimes, fight nights etc they should be fine.
Just a question of where is TUF gonna go and will FS2 air FS1 prelims and fight events, some shoulder programming.
Also about the question about payout perspectives we hardly know shit about Bellator behind the scenes. Gate, attendance, fighter pay, drug testing hardly ever gets released unless they go to one of the big AC like NJ, Cali or Ohio.
They will average 500,000 viewers for the first 12 months.
They are going to a new channel so they will be forced to start over and retrain the viewer. That never happened with Bellator on Spike, the viewers were already trained