With the success of Bellator 106 this past weekend I wanted to break the ratings down by the numbers so everyone can actually see how big of a night it actually was for Bellator and Spike TV.
Bellator 106: Ratings By The Numbers –
- Preliminary viewership landed at an all-time high of 1.1 million viewers
- The telecast peaked with 1.4 million viewers at 11:17 p.m. EST
- The telecast ranked #2 in all of cable for its time-slot with the core men 18-49 demographic
- The core men 18-49 demographic rating peaked at 1.1 during the Alvarez-Chandler bout.
- The telecast was the most watched MMA show on television this fall (Sept ’13 – Nov ’13)
- Compared to a year ago, the Bellator 106 telecast was up: +40% in P18-49, +79% in M18-49, +59% in M18-34 and +49% in average audience
- The FSU/Miami game, which was head-to-head with Bellator, was the highest-rated and most viewed Saturday Night Football game of the year.
Special note, among ad-supported cable networks in the same timeframe, Spike TV ranked #3 in P18-49 (behind TBS w/Big Bang & Wild Wild West and FX w/Grown Ups; tied with Adult Swim) and #2 in M18-49 (TBS).
Overall, when you slice and dice all of these numbers, this was a tremendous night for both Bellator and Spike TV. Especially when you factor in that it did this against the highest rated College Football game of the season.
FSU/Miami’s season-high marks in viewership and rating was one of the major reason why Fox wanted to keep the UFC off its national network as College Football has greater value to it on national Fox.
Anyway, now the question going forward becomes will this viewership and ratings success keep Bellator up as season nine comes to a close. Only time will tell.
Stay with TheMMAReport.com for ongoing coverage of the Nielsen ratings battle between Bellator MMA and the UFC