It had already been announced that Bellator would be doing a reality show in conjunction with the debut of weekly live events on Spike TV starting in 2013.
While not giving much in the way of details, Spike announced Monday there would be tryouts for the show, and at this point what they are looking for looks similar to a release the network would have done last year for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ (TUF) reality show. TUF aired on Spike from 2005 to 2011.
Tryouts for the as yet unnamed Bellator show will be held on Nov. 10 at the American Top Team Gym in Coconut Creek, Fla. they will air from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
They are looking for lightweight and welterweight fighters. Fighters must have at least three professional wins, and must have a .500 or better win-loss percentage for their career. Fighters also have to be over the age of 21.
All that was announced is that the show will air in 2013. The nature of the tryouts make it appear the show will be about finding new talent for the promotion, similar to the role TUF played for UFC, as opposed to a reality show focusing on fighters already under contract.
A major stipulation in UFC’s last contract with Spike was that if the contract ended and wasn’t renewed by either party, that Spike would get one year’s usage of tapes of all matches that had previously aired on the network. But in doing so, they would be banned in airing any non-UFC MMA product on television.
Spike to an extent used a loophole to air the weekly Bellator preliminary fights, as well as K-1 kickboxing events, on its web site. Both Bellator and K-1 will be staples of Spike programming starting in January.
In the network’s attempt to remain relevant to MMA fans while not being allowed to air new footage, they also created the MMA Uncensored television show, which promoted both UFC and Bellator events heavily.