Bellator MMA’s debut on CBS averaged 1.068 million viewers on
Saturday night, according to
ShowBuzz Daily.
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The Bellator 290 broadcast lasted a little more than two hours and
concluded with Fedor
Emelianenko’s farewell bout against heavyweight champion
Ryan
Bader in the evening’s main event. Bader won the fight via
first-round technical knockout. The card also saw Johnny
Eblen retain his middleweight belt with a five-round verdict
over Anatoly
Tokov in the co-headliner, while Brennan
Ward scored a second-round TKO against Sabah
Homasi in the opening bout.
The event drew a 0.18 rating in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
By comparison, that was better than college basketball on Fox,
which drew 567,000 viewers and a 0.10 rating in the 18-to-49
demographic. However, it fell short of the Golden State-Dallas NBA
game on ABC, which averaged 2.36 million viewers and drew a 0.57
share in the 18-to-49 demographic.
Television ratings have dipped from previous years in large part
due to the presence of multiple streaming services. That was also
the case for Bellator 290, which was simulcast on Paramount+.
Ratings were not available for that portion of the broadcast. As a
result, Bellator 290 fell short of previous MMA broadcasts on CBS,
including Strikeforce “Fedor vs. Rogers” in 2008 (4.042 million
viewers) and Strikeforce “Nashville” in 2010 (2.9 million
viewers).
It is unclear if Bellator will air any future events on CBS. The
promotion currently airs the majority of its events on Showtime,
which is expected to merge with Paramount+ in the coming months.