Bellator 138, the organization’s latest “tent pole” event occurs Friday night on Spike TV with Kimbo Slice taking on Ken Shamrock in the featured event.
Last Friday, Spike TV aired “Countdown to Unfinished Business” which drew 215,000 viewers according to Nielsen sources. The shoulder programming was preceded by a PBC event which drew 446,000 viewers. The ratings are less than prior shoulder programming for Bellator events. For example, last year’s “Rampage vs. King Mo” shoulder program hyping their fight at Bellator 120 drew 460,000 viewers. While we do not have the ratings for shoulder programming for Bellator 131, one might make the assumption that Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar drew more than 215,000 viewers in the days before their big fight last November.
Still, there is some positive buzz for this event despite the fact the two main event fighters are past their prime.
Fortunately for Bellator, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday ending the NBA Finals. A Game 7 would have put the NBA up against Bellator on Friday which could have proven disastrous for the organization. With boxing’s big event this weekend occurring on Saturday, Bellator will go unopposed aside from regional MLB broadcasts and those wanting to watch the US Open. However, the latter likely skews to an older demo not targeted by Bellator.
Scott Coker indicated in an MMA Fighting article that he believed that Slice-Shamrock could beat the ratings record of Ortiz-Bonnar. Bellator 131 last November drew an overall record 1.24 million viewers on Spike TV climaxing with a peak of 2 million during the Ortiz-Bonnar fight. The adjusted viewership for DVRs drew the telecast to 1.4 million for the overall event and 2.246 million for the main event. Of course, Ortiz-Bonnar included some pro-wrestling promotion which drew notoriety for better or worse.
It’s undeniable that Kimbo Slice is, or was, a ratings draw. His EliteXC days drew huge ratings on CBS and season 10 of TUF (on Spike TV) was the last time that the TUF series drew notable ratings. Of course, aside from Kimbo, that season was sparked due to the rivalry between Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson. Ken Shamrock is a legend in MMA and his name is tied to famous rivalries throughout the years. But, will this fight garner ratings?
Payout Perspective:
Without the NBA Finals opposing this event, we could see a very good ratings number for Bellator 138. I doubt we see ratings like Ortiz-Bonnar. The fact is that both Slice and Shamrock are past their primes and this may deter some viewers from tuning in. Yet, the names might intrigue a casual viewer just to see if they still have “it.” We shall see Friday if their name recognition should be past tense as well.
impossible to tell,without NBA that helps but there is very little buzz for this card, wasnt promoted nearly as much as Tito/Bonnar and Kimbo has been gone for years.
BUt I’m sure a bunch of the Spike casuals who flip channels will see Kimbo and Ken and watch it. Just hard to tell if this does lower numbers under Tito/Bonnar or blows that away and gets 3 million viewers.
Nobody really has any idea. Gonna all come down to how many still care about Kimbo. I wouldnt be shocked either way< I wouldnt be surprised if this thing flopped and does under mill average and I wouldnt be shocked if it beats Tito/Bonnar's numbers.
Hopefully they d well and the casual fans watch the full card, there is a lot of talent there, just none of those are involved in the main event,
One thing’s for sure it will destroy anything that PBC has put up on Spike. HAHA!
Probably more average viewers than all 3 PBC’s on SPike combined.
Who knows, maybe Shamrock will get “cut” again. Then they will bring Seth Petruzelli’s ass back from retirement who will proceed to knock Kimbo out with some faery dust.