Bellator 198: “Fedor vs. Mir” took place at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., this past weekend (Sat., April 28, 2018), featuring a main event that saw Fedor Emelianenko finish Frank Mir in 48 seconds to advance to the second round of the Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, where he gets a chance to do the same to Chael Sonnen.
Initial ratings data for the Paramount Network-televised broadcast indicated that Bellator 198 averaged 581,000 viewers. In addition, Saturday night’s Nielsen ratings score the program at a 0.22 rating, which was good for 31st on the night among all of cable television.
The simulcast on CMT averaged 169,000 viewers. Stiff competition from Top Rank on ESPN (701,000 viewers, 0.20 rating) and PBC on FOX (839,000 viewers, 0.2 rating) may have divided the combat sports audience that night, and it’s also playoff season for both the NBA and NHL. The early numbers are an increase in viewership from Bellator 197: “Chandler vs. Girtz,” which did 242,000 viewers.
Once additional data came in from DVR +3 and the West coast replay the numbers rose greatly. The “Fedor vs. Mir” main event drew 1.5 million viewers, peaking at 11:26 p.m. ET. The overall average for the show combining all sources turned out to be 838,000 viewers.
The live gate for ticket sales was also the second biggest in Bellator history, so aside from the peak number for the main event, it’s also a homerun in revenue for the promotion.
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