Bellator 217: “Gallagher vs. Graham” aired on Paramount Network on Feb. 23, 2019, featuring a main event between James Gallagher and Steven Graham, with “Strabanimal” returning to his winning ways with a first round submission of “Golden” via rear-naked choke (read recap here).
For a card that saw little appeal outside of Dublin, Ireland, Bellator 217’s main event fared somewhat better than expected. Indeed, Paramount Network recently revealed that Gallagher’s victory was witnessed by 667,000 viewers (DVR +3), excluding viewers who watched the simulcast on DAZN.
The show as a whole did 238,000 viewers less for an average of 429,000 (DVR +3) during the tape-delayed broadcast. One could argue that people skipped out on the show having found the results online; then again, there are live events that have done far less. By that small measure the FOC (Friend of Conor) — who improved to 8-1 with the win over Graham — could prove to be something of a draw for Bellator MMA.
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