Following up on a successful tentpole event in November 2014, Bellator held a three more tent pole events on SpikeTV. Overall, the events and ratings have been a success.
Shamrock-Kimbo, St. Louis, MO, June 2015 – The long-awaited fight that was supposed to take place in EliteXC, but due to a Ken Shamrock injury, Seth Petruzelli stepped in and we all know the rest. From an outsider’s point of view, one would think that this fight between two men well over 40 would not be of interest. However, the ratings told otherwise as Shamrock-Kimbo drew the biggest ratings for any Bellator MMA event including the Ortiz-Bonnar show from November 2014. It averaged 1.58 million viewers and the main event drew 2.1 million viewers. In comparison, Ortiz-Bonnar drew 1.24 million viewers overall with the main event grabbing 1.8 million viewers.
Dynamite I, San Jose, CA, September 2015 – In collaboration with Glory Kickboxing, Bellator MMA held an event with both a kickboxing ring and an MMA cage side-by-side which had many long-time combat sports fans thinking of Japanese events from the past. The event drew 800,000 viewers which was very good although some believed that the mix of kickboxing diminished the overall product.
Bellator 145: Straus-Pitbull, St. Louis, MO November 2015 -Although this event did not have as much fanfare of any of the other tent pole events, it drew 814,000 viewers as it exceeded the ratings of Dynamite I and was the third highest show this season.
The tentpole events have worked in generating a higher number of viewers for its special events. Moreover, the Ken-Kimbo showdown drew a big number and it still shows that Kimbo Slice is still a draw. Bellator will look to him again as they’ve pitted him against Dada 5000 for its February 2016 tentpole event.
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