Bellator 47 Does Second Best Ratings Since Coming To MTV2

Last Saturday's installment of Bellator's summer series, which featured the semi-finals of their featherweight tournament, notched the second best ratings in the program's history on MTV2 with 277,000 viewers. The show peaked with 386,000 viewers at 10:45 p.m.. Bellator 44 still holds the mark for highest ratings in the series' history on the network with 325,000 viewers.

Bellator 47 was the second installment in the promotion's inaugural "summer series" which entails one event per month in June, July and August. The event saw former Sengoku champ Marlon Sandro and former lightweight tourny winner Pat Curran advance to the finals which will be held at Bellator 48 next month.

Here are all the viewers for Bellator on MTV2:

Bellator 35: 200,000
Bellator 36: 230,000
Bellator 37: 173,000
Bellator 38: 150,000
Bellator 39: 174,000
Bellator 40: 218,000
Bellator 41: 132,000
Bellator 42: 199,000
Bellator 43: 182,000
Bellator 44: 325,000
Bellator 45: 264,000
Bellator 46: 185,000
Bellator 47: 277,000

As to what's driving these fluxuations in Bellator's numbers, I'll punt to Luke Thomas' analysis back in May:

I can't possibly speculate as to what caused these numbers. There wasn't much competition, but that's historically failed to matter much. Perhaps it's been the continuity week-over-week at 9 p.m. ET that brought viewers back.

As for what this means for Bellator, I don't want to read into one event as a tipping point even if it's a high-water mark. I can say this is the first time MTV has reached out to me to inform me of the ratings. Take that for whatever it's worth. I've heard rumors the organization is on the verge of taking UFC's slot at Spike as well as suggestions the organization is hemorrhaging money. You figure it out.