Bellator 153 took place this past Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and was headlined by Andrey Koreshkov retaining the Bellator welterweight title with a decision victory over former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson.
In the preliminary television ratings (Live+SD), the fight card had 618,000 viewers and the card saw a 11 percent increase in viewership in the +3 DVR ratings with 686,000 viewers. The peak of the broadcast came during the fight between Koreshkov and Henderson with 1.1 million viewers, and the fight averaged 973,000 viewers.
The Bellator card had an early start time of 8 p.m. ET on Spike and went up against NBA Playoff games on ESPN. The early game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons averaged 3.8 million viewers and once that game ended (9:35 p.m.), the Bellator 153 broadcast gained 248,000 viewers (495,000 to 743,000) in a span of nine minutes.
The +3 DVR Ratings for Bellator in 2016 is below:
Bellator 148: 603k
Bellator 149: 2.2 million
Bellator 150: 809k
Bellator 151: 838k
Bellator 152: 619k
Bellator 153: 686k