The UFC and Bellator held fight cards this past Friday night and feature Jacare Souza defeating Gegard Mousasi in the main event of UFC Fight Night 50, while Patricio Pitbull won the featherweight title by defeating Pat Curran in the main event of Bellator 123.
According to Nielsen sources, the UFC Fight Night 50 preliminary card on Fox Sports 1 (7p-10p ET) had 485,000 viewers and the main card (10p-12a ET) drew 911,000 viewers. The same sources confirmed to TheMMAReport.com that the Bellator 123 main card (8-10:45p ET) has 667,000 viewers in the preliminary ratings.
Between 10:00 p.m. ET- 10:45 p.m. ET when both UFC and Bellator main cards were live, the UFC had 53,000 more viewers than Bellator in the preliminary ratings. Just to note, the UFC main card began at 10 p.m. ET and that was the time when the main event title fight between Pitbull and Curran was beginning.
With the viewership from Friday night, the UFC average for a Fight Night/TUF Finale card on Fox Sports 1 in 2014 is 828,000. The 911,000 viewership on Friday night marked the sixth time in thirteen Fight Night/TUF Finale cards in 2014 that have reached over 900,000 viewers.
Here is the history of the UFC Fight Night/TUF Finale preliminary viewership in 2014 on Fox Sports 1.
UFC Fight Night 35: 629,000 (Prelims – 220,000)
UFC Fight Night 36: 1,400,000
UFC Fight Night 38: 936,000 (Prelims – 369,000)
TUF Nations Finale: 641,000 (Prelims – 263,000)
UFC Fight Night 40: 655,000
TUF Brazil 3 Finale: 609,000 (Prelims – 560,000)
UFC Fight Night 42: 1,217,000 (Prelims – 812,000)
UFC Fight Night 44: 702,000 (Prelims – 500,000)
TUF 19 Finale: 1,000,000 (Prelims – 774,000)
UFC Fight Night 45: 640,000 (Prelims – 415,000)
UFC Fight Night 47: 735,000 (Prelims – 116,000)
UFC Fight Night 49: 689,000
UFC Fight Night 50: 911,000 (Prelims – 485,000)
For Bellator, the average viewership in the preliminary ratings for 2014 for a live main card on Fox Sports 1 is now 661,000 and the previous Bellator card on Spike drew 572,000 in July.
The preliminary television ratings for Bellator in 2014 is below.
Bellator 110: 880,000
Bellator 111: 653,000
Bellator 112: 699,000
Bellator 113: 507,000
Bellator 114: 711,000
Bellator 115: 828,000
Bellator 116: 572,000
Bellator 117: 617,000
Bellator 118: 701,000
Bellator 119: 667,000
Bellator 120: 712,000 (PPV Prelims)
Bellator 121: 668,000
Bellator 122: 572,000
Bellator 123: 667,000
Stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for more updates on MMA TV ratings involving the UFC, Bellator, and The World Series of Fighting.