Bellator put on its sixth live show on Spike TV last night which featured Shahbulat Shamhalev winning the featherweight tournament and a huge surprise upset of Emmanuel Newton over King Mo.
Bellator was also coming off its worst ratings performance of its Spike TV reign. With that said, this show clearly delivered from the preliminary card all the way up to the main event. The only question remaining was how would the ratings fare.
According to Nielsen and SpikeTV, Bellator 90’s preliminary number came in slightly higher than last week at 737k total viewers. The replay immediately following came in with a strong 473k total viewers number. The demographic breakdowns will be out shortly and I will update once they are out.
The normal lead-in show for Bellator, Impact Wrestling, did a similar number to last week landing at 1.352 million viewers with a 0.4 in the 18-49 adult demographic. The show featured Hulk Hogan announcing a new #1 contender and Aces & Eights finally getting a victory over Bully Ray, Sting and Hulk Hogan in a six-man tag match.
For the rest of the competition last night Bellator was once again up against some strong network competition in its time-slot including ABC’s Scandal which ended up being down from last week falling to 7.62 million viewers and a 2.7 in the 18-49 adult demographic and CBS’s Elementary that came in higher than last week at 11.05 million viewers but only a 2.3 in the 18-49 adult demographic.
When it came to the other cable networks 10p.m. shows Archer, Suits and Ridiculousness once again reigned supreme in the time-slot war. Although, it was rival network FX’s Archer who topped the 10p.m. time-slot with a huge 1.1 in the 19-49 adult demographic. USA’s Suits won for overall viewership with 3.2 millon viewers. The NBA which crushed ratings last week took a sharp decline and landed at 1.972 million viewers.
I will have an updated Bellator ratings chart once the live+3 information becomes available next Tuesday.
Bellator Season 8 Ratings History:
Bellator 85 – 985k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 86 – 877k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 87 – 774k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 88 – 863k (w/DVR)
Bellator 89 – 773k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 90 – 737k (w/out DVR)