If there’s one thing we can gather from last Sunday’s UFC Fight Night: Cerrone vs. Medeiros card, it’s that there’s still plenty of interest in Sage Northcutt.
Average viewership for the FS1 main card clocked in at 893,000 viewers, with a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demographic. It’s a pretty good number when you consider it was going up against the NBA All-Star Game and the Winter Olympics, but the peak viewership may (or may not!) surprise you.
Approximately 1,078,000 watched the opening bout between Sage Northcutt and Thibault Gouti, per MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer. Northcutt prevailed by unanimous decision, giving him consecutive wins for the first time since he began his career 7-0. When Northcutt last appeared on a UFC main card, he was part of the “Paige and Sage” show that was UFC on FOX 22, which averaged nearly 3.2 million viewers and peaked with 4.8 million for Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson.
The 21-year-old Northcutt’s most recent reported payout was $120,000 ($60,000 + $60,000 win bonus) for his preliminary card bout vs. Michel Quinones back in November. Northcutt has clearly been given the promotional push by the UFC, and so far he’s at least someone fans want to watch on TV. I imagine that will mean more main card appearances for him, whether he wins or loses, and right now he’s two for his last two.
In stark contrast, Friday’s Bellator 194 card was a flop. The heavyweight tournament quarterfinal bout between Roy Nelson and Matt Mitrione headlined the card, and despite both men being notable UFC names, the ratings were not good. Just 476,000 viewers tuned in for the main card on Paramount Network, and the broadcast peaked at 775,000 for Mitrone vs. Nelson, with DVR numbers factored in. That’s only 6,000 more viewers than the January event headlined by Lorenz Larkin and Fernando Gonzalez, and the 18-49 demo rating was a paltry 0.16, which ranked 72nd among all cable television programming in the US for that evening.
Nine of Bellator’s last 25 events have averaged under 500,000 viewers, including two of the three shows they’ve staged in 2018. It should be noted that Paramount Network, aka the channel formerly known as Spike, is in about 10 million fewer households than it was in 2015, but nevertheless the ratings decline for Bellator MMA is noticeable.