While one promotion felt the brunt of a ratings disaster on Saturday, another continued their slow march to success. According to MTV officials, the primetime telecast of Bellator 49 drew 235,000 viewers, good for the fourth best showing in company history.
The September 10th debut of Bellator's fifth season scored an 18 percent increase over last season's average. An immediate replay delivered another 151,000 viewers. Surprisingly, the combined reported figures significantly bested Strikeforce's counter-programmed Showtime broadcast -- Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov -- which only drew 274,000 viewers.
In addition to MTV2's televised main card, Bellator 49's preliminary card was available for live streaming for the first time on Spike.com. A high-definition broadcast was also offered on EPIX.
A compete listing of ratings for Bellator's MTV2 broadcasts:
Bellator 44: 325,000 viewers
Bellator 47: 277,000 viewers
Bellator 45: 264,000 viewers
Bellator 49: 235,000 viewers
Bellator 36: 230,000 viewers
Bellator 48: 226,000 viewers
Bellator 40: 218,000 viewers
Bellator 35: 200,000 viewers
Bellator 42: 199,000 viewers
Bellator 46: 185,000 viewers
Bellator 43: 182,000 viewers
Bellator 39: 174,000 viewers
Bellator 37: 173,000 viewers
Bellator 38: 150,000 viewers
Bellator 41: 132,000 viewers