Bellator Moving To Friday Nights, Season Debut On March 2nd
by Josh Nason on Dec 5, 2011 1:01 PM EST
in Bellator News
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The assumed move of Bellator off Saturday nights was confirmed Monday, but instead of a mid-week air time, the promotion will once again go head-to-head with the UFC quite frequently.
Bellator will now air on Friday nights on MTV2, beginning on March 2nd when their sixth season begins. This next run will feature four tournaments (lightweights, featherweights, welterweights and middleweights) with a fifth to be announced soon, expected to be either light heavyweights or women's 125-pounders.
In the press release, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said, "Our focus was to find the right night, where the largest number of MMA fans could enjoy the show. We’ve been discussing this move with our partners at Viacom for months. When we looked at the alternatives, we agreed that Fridays provided a great night for us to reach MMA fans with our live, real sport, tournament events every week."
However, one of Bellator's issues on Saturdays was running up against UFC pay-per-views and other major sports like college football. While they will be out of the college crosshairs for the most part, Fridays are not traditionally a strong TV night for viewership. Additionally, they will go head-to-head with both the newly-moved The Ultimate Fighter and UFC Fight Night events on FX, M-1 Global and Strikeforce Challengers events if both continue to be aired on Showtime, HDNet MMA events and WWE Smackdown on SyFy.
No official start time or venue was announced for the March 2nd date.
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basically
When I'm on the mic it goes down, CINTRON
-Joell Ortiz
by The Lethal Haze on Dec 5, 2011 3:05 PM EST up reply actions
Better than Saturday, at least.
"So even though it’s the gayest sport ever, MMA is still the best sport ever. I love my gay sport." - Wrestling Uber Alles
Seems smart until you realize it's dumb.
Oh well, rock and a hard place I guess.
"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
by menckenstein on Dec 5, 2011 1:09 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I too will do this....
….only reversed. I’ll set Bellator as the priority., especially w/ Aoki/Alvarez, Patricky in the next tourney and Chandler as the champ. Shit is getting gooood son!! I rather watch live Bellator fights for 2 hrs than watch a soap opera and then a fight or 2 that don’t even cound towards the fighters record the last half hour of the show.
by Cestus84 on Dec 5, 2011 5:08 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Bellator will definitely be getting me as a viewer over TUF
I didnt watch an episode all season of tuf besides the fights to get in the house. TUF is stale and i dont think that will change for me even with the live fights.
Meanwhile Bellator is slowly building a nice roster and putting on entertaining shows more consistently. With no football or big UFC shows up head to head with them I will be tuned in a lot more often
You missed out, my friend. TUF had some of its best fights ever this season.
by Shnak on Dec 5, 2011 1:51 PM EST up reply actions 4 recs
so true. they redeemed themselves for a while this last season.
"Men like us... we never get back the things we love."
- Jaron Namir
by Victor Rodriguez on Dec 5, 2011 4:21 PM EST up reply actions
3rd that
TUF was great this season….whoever didn’t watch missed out.
"You got Floyd Mayweather making 25 million dollars...he can't stop the double leg." - Nick Diaz
tuf had some great fights this season
by biggant on Dec 6, 2011 6:49 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I 2nd this.
Well at least for me it was this way. I saw some of the TUF fights but I rather watch Bellator anyday.
They may have more competiton but on Fridays Bellator will be the more relevant event
TUF is well TUF sure this season was great but we don’t know squat about it. Also Fight Nights are only once a quarter or every two months it seems so they will face less straight UFC competiton.
SF Challanger cards can be good but if asked wether to watch Challangers or Bellator 9/10 ill say Bellator as long as its not a heavyweight tournament.
Bellator>HDNet Fights other than DREAM shows.
Twitter @MaZZM
http://www.mazzznet.com/
by MaZZacare on Dec 5, 2011 1:22 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
They'll have about three weeks to themselves before TUF 15 starts (going by previous schedules)
With FX having a much larger viewership than MTV 2 and a higher viewing average than Spike, it’s not going to be much of a contest ratings wise. Bellator should move to Wednesday nights to avoid the same problem as last Season.
Don't follow in my footsteps I walk into walls
I was hoping that Bellator would move to a mid week slot. They would be able to establish their brand so much easier if they made that move. I certainly would be up for mid-week MMA.
It's that the world is basically a forced labor camp from which the workers, perfectly innocent, are led forth by lottery, a few each day, to be executed.
I don't think that's just the way I see it. I think that's the way it is. Are there alternative views? Yes. Will any of them stand close scrutiny? No.
by memitim on Dec 5, 2011 1:45 PM EST via mobile reply actions 2 recs
If TUF wasn't going to be live then I'd say good move but with the new TUF format it's going to be a toss up for fans everyweek depending on the match ups
Visit fiveouncesofpain.com
Ratings wise it will probably be the same
because to me the ratings are not so much a reflection of going head to head with college football and the UFC it’s a reflection of the channel they are on.
Yeah everybody here is saying how Bellator is better than TUF and that’s fair but there are still alot of people in this country going through hard times and so even if they have cable they have basic cable which comes with channels like FX and SyFy and not with channels like MTV2 or EPIX.
SPIKE shoulf just gift wrap the UFC library and hand it back over to zuffa early so they can get the ball rolling with bellator.
Visit fiveouncesofpain.com
Your probably right... just thinking out loud here...money makes the world go round...when I say "gift wrap" I'm saying have a monatary incentive...
and if SPIKE starts putting together terrible UFC specials and dilute the product I’m sure Zuffa will want there library back…and if Spike is giving it back for free plus an early terminatation settlement I’m sure things will work out just fine.
Visit fiveouncesofpain.com
what can they offer to make zuffa take it back? They don’t want terrible ratings for the year, they want to maintain what the UFC has been giving them so they can try to carry it over to bellator, putting on a shitty product will hurt them more than it hurts the UFC because they are moving to a more visible place.
Pretty sure the UFC would have to accept the offer
Which they won’t…they know what they are doing.
"You got Floyd Mayweather making 25 million dollars...he can't stop the double leg." - Nick Diaz
in addition to what I said above... SPIKE has already countered UFC on FOX and tried to gain viewership with previous Cain/JDS fights....
that’s them fighting fair and clean… imagine what they could do with that library if they want to be dicks ? So Zuffa can know what there doing and be great businessmen but if they can’t control what others are doing with there product it’s fair to say they will have an interest in getting the library back.
Visit fiveouncesofpain.com
do not want
This is better than Saturday but still not good with tuf and hd.net friday is locked down for mma………they should fhave or sure took the tuf wensday sopt..or do a monday show
by Aramaki23 on Dec 5, 2011 3:22 PM EST via mobile reply actions
"with a fifth to be announced soon, expected to be either light heavyweights or women's 125-pounders."
At a quick glance I thought it said 125-pounders, like not women’s. I was thinking holy shit yes!! They’re gonna beat the UFC to the FLWs, they’re gonna pull the rug right out from underneath the UFC and get the FLWs first. But then I re read it and calmed down. That would be crazy though, Bellator would be looking to start some shit then.
Wow
They had 6 other days to choose from….6 other days other then Saturday that they could air Bellator cards on.
Of the 6 days….only 1 was a bad choice. THEY PICKED IT!
How could they be so…I don’t know, naive?
Okay, the UFC events are stealing all of the headlines and attention and viewers on Saturdays…we need to switch our day.
Well, TUF is going to be on a better channel with better promotion next year…and it’s going to have an attractive new live format where fans get to vote on the matchups. Those are going to be on Fridays.
Fight Night cards are going to be on Friday’s as well….and Strikeforce Challenger cards….it’s pretty much the unanimously 2nd worst day we could have our shows on other then Saturday.
Damn…the fact that they have to last all of 2012 to get onto Spike is bad enough…they aren’t doing themselves ANY favors by limiting their chances of even building up a niche following preceding that.
"You got Floyd Mayweather making 25 million dollars...he can't stop the double leg." - Nick Diaz
Fridays are better than Saturdays. I am personally used to watching MMA on Friday especially with all the stuff they have on HDNet and the occasional Strikeforce Challengers. I’ll watch it, but I do not know what to expect ratings-wise.
Check out the C&D Channel on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Gobusiness123 for MMA reviews, predictions, analysis, and other MMA related content.
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