The ratings for this past Friday’s (March 9, 2012) live broadcasts of “The Ultimate Fighter on FX” and for Bellator 60 are in.
The fifteenth season of “TUF” drew an average audience of 1.3 million viewers to the FX channel, which featured live elimination matches between sixteen pairs of lightweight fighters who competed in the 2.5 hour live season premiere on Friday night.
Fighters had five minutes to beat their opponent through knockout, submission or by decision in order to earn one of of sixteen spots in the house. UFC president offered fighters $5,000 in bonus money for a finish.
This season of “TUF” features opposing coaches UFC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz, and challenger, Urijah Faber.
Bellator opened it’s sixth season on Friday night on MTV2 with Bellator 60, drawing an average of 169,000 viewers.
The event featured the opening quarterfinal round of this seasons featherweight tournament, and was capped off with a Bellator 145-lbs title bout between champ Joe Warren and challenger Pat Curran. Curran would score a third round TKO to win the title.
The undercard for Bellator 60 was streamed online at Spike.com, with MMAjunkie.com noting with Spike officials that online viewers “were up 58 percent compared to the season-five average.”
This Friday (March 16, 2012), fans can watch the next shows from both promotions as episode two of “TUF” appears on FX and Bellator 61, which features the middleweight quarterfinals, airs live on MTV2.
(Props to MMAjunkie.com for the audience numbers of both events)