Bellator put on its eleventh live show of the Spike TV era last night live from the Revel Casino in Atlantic City to close out season eight. The card was stacked and featured Pat Curran successfully defending his title and both Frodo Khasbulaev and Doug Marshall walking away tournament winners.
According to a Nielsen source, Bellator 95’s preliminary number tied for the seasons second-highest live total landing at 901k total viewers. Which is a sharp 20% viewership increase from last weeks live number.
The live broadcast peaked between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. with over 1,046,000 viewers and a huge 0.91 in the 18-34 male demographic. The replay at 12:00 a.m. drew a fairly average 328k total viewers, which put Bellator 95’s total viewership at 1,229,000.
Bellator 95 also showed a solid increase in the all key demographics. The 18-49 adult demographic number landed at 0.4, compared to the previous three-weeks which were sub 0.3. The 18-49 male demographic number tied for the second highest rating of the season at 0.7. The 18-24 male demographic number came in second highest rating of the season at 0.64.
Among basic cable providers Bellator also scored huge coming in #6 of all shows during the 10 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. time frame. These numbers also pushed Bellator’s season eight live average down below 800k placing the seasons live average at 792k viewers.
The normal lead-in show for Bellator, Impact Wrestling, which has been down the last few weeks finally bounced back this week to 1.425 million viewers. Impact also bounced back in the 18-49 adult demographic landing at 0.4 in the adult 18-49 demographic. The show featured the legend Hulk Hogan confronting AJ Styles and a 10-man tag team war which included the likes of Devon, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle and many more TNA superstars.
The national networks added a new 10p.m. time-slot contender with NBC debuting Hannibal. The show’s ratings were arguably subpar coming in third behind ABC and CBS landing at 4.31 million viewers and a 1.6 18-49 adult rating (4 share). ABC and CBS were both north of 8 million viewers with their usual lineup of Scandal and Elementary which have both been strong all season long.
When it came to the other cable networks at 10p.m. History Channel’s Big Rig Bounty Hunters, FX’s Archer, MTV’s Ridiculousness and both Family Guy and American Dad on Adult Swim reigned supreme in the time-slot war. Big Rig Bounty Hunters landed at 2.076 million viewers, while Archer and Ridiculousness each landed well above 1 million viewers and above the 0.8 18-49 adult demographic for the second week in a row. Family Guy and American Dad won the time-slot war reaching over 1 million in the 18-49 adult demographic war.
All in all, this was a very solid performance for Bellator all-around and something they should be proud of. With the previous weeks being around the average and this one jumping back up it really shows the growth and what a stacked card can do for this organization.
I will have an updated Bellator ratings chart once the live+3 information becomes available next Tuesday. I will also have a mega-chart that will have every single Bellator mapped out from the MTV2 to Spike TV era that you will not want to miss. So as always, stay tuned for more ratings analysis on TheMMAReport.com
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 – 791k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 91 – 978k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 92 – 797k (w/ DVR)
Bellator 93 – 804k (w/DVR)
Bellator 94 – 764k (w/DVR)
Bellator 95 – 901k (w/out DVR)