By Carlin Bardsley
Bellator MMA’s Summer Series comes to a head Wednesday night with Bellator 97, headlined by Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler defending his title against David (Caveman) Rickels.
The mini-tournament has been an artistic success so far, with all four main card bouts on Bellator 96 ending by knockout or TKO and producing a highlight-reel moment in headliner Muhammed (King Mo) Lawal’s KO of Seth Petruzelli.
But in terms of TV viewership it was a disappointment, as only 480,000 viewers tuned in. That number is almost half of what Bellator was averaging on Spike TV this past season.
But Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is optimistic about the upcoming event, going as far to call Bellator 97 “an embarrassment of riches.”
“This should be an amazing event. On paper, this is an amazing lineup. Chandler’s fight with Rickels should be spectacular,” Rebney said. “I honestly think Chandler if he’s not the best he’s certainly among the top lightweights in the world.
“(Welterweight champ Ben) Askren’s looked unbelievable in his last few fights for us and he’s facing the guy who probably has the best chance to solve the puzzle that is Ben Askren: Andrey Koreshkov the undefeated phenom from Russia.
“We’ve got the King Mo fight against (Jacob) Noe; Noe coming off that big win over (Renato) Babalu (Sobral). We’ve got the heavyweight tournament championship, (Patricio Freire’s) return, this card is so stacked.”
Bellator is clearly counting on Chandler to drive viewership, having rewarded him with a new long-term contract. His last title defence came on Bellator’s Spike TV debut, which was seen by 938,000 viewers.
Those numbers shattered Bellator’s previous viewership records. Chandler is everything someone in Rebney’s position looks for in a main-event attraction. In addition to being undefeated and exciting in the cage, he is also well-spoken, articulate and humble outside of it. Bellator doesn’t run the risk of attracting the kind of negative attention with Chandler as they do with someone like the self-proclaimed War Machine, who seems like he only opens his mouth to change feet.
The other television offering from Bellator, the reality series Fight Master, follows Bellator 97 and thus far has also received mediocre ratings but critical acclaim. The series is produced by Amazing Race creator Bertram van Munster and takes the format of The Ultimate Fighter and presents it with a twist. The fighters are now choosing their coaches from a panel of MMA luminaries Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock and Greg Jackson, along with Bellator’s own Joe Warren.
Perhaps most troubling about the Fight Master numbers is that after a slow start but steady increase to episode three, the series has declined in viewership each of the last two episodes. Rebney of course wants the numbers to go up, but is encouraged at the reception the show has received.
“It’s been critically received very well, people seem to like it. They like the format, the juxtaposition of fighter choosing coaches,” Rebney said. “You’re always in a battle for numbers, you’d always want to see more people watching and tuning in, but the critical response and the response among MMA fans has been great and that’s our core, that’s who we’re trying to impress.
“You’d always like to see bigger numbers. When we premiered on Spike last year with over a million viewers, everyone was happy with those numbers and I want to see bigger numbers. I’d like to see bigger numbers, but I’m happy with the way the show looks, I’m happy with the way people have responded to it, and we’ll see where it goes over the next eight weeks.”
Beyond the numbers, one consistent criticism of the show is that instead of focusing on Bellator’s biggest homegrown talent, like Chandler and Askren, the show has thus far focused more on the retired stars Couture and Shamrock. Both legends made their notoriety in other companies, and Greg Jackson is best known for cornering UFC fighters. Indeed, the only Bellator-based talent that has received any substantial airtime has been Warren.
When the UFC debuted TUF in 2005, the teams were coached by Couture and Chuck Liddell, who were the company’s two biggest stars at the time and were building to what would become a record-setting PPV for the time – UFC 52. Bellator’s offering has no such build, but Rebney is dismissive of the criticism and advises viewers to follow the show’s path.
“I think that you have to stay tuned. What you’ll see as we move forward is that we integrate a lot of the (homegrown) talent into the show but it doesn’t come until later,” he said.
“You’ll see some familiar faces, the King Mos and others who will be making special guest appearances, special guest coaching duties and special guest commentary in the show. It was kind of like taking a drink of water out of a firehose with the first few episodes trying to get the fighters set up, but you’ll see more talent moving forwards.”
Fight Master is one of the first presentations in the partnership between Bellator and Viacom. The partnership allows Bellator to make comprehensive entertainment contracts to fighters such as the one signed by Quinton (Rampage) Jackson.
Jackson’s deal includes not only fighting, but a guarantee for a reality show of his own, cross-promotion on other Viacom offerings, the possibility of feature films and appearances on Spike’s Impact Wrestling offering. The Viacom alliance and the offerings that alliance provided allows Bellator to make prospective fighters remains the one key plank that they can offer a fighter over the UFC.
So far, the only cross-promotional appearances the partnership has yielded has been Jackson and Lawal appearing on the wrestling show, and a spot on the tattoo reality show Ink Master by welterweight Brent Weedman.
Rebney remains confident that the real fruits of the agreement have yet to be borne.
“We just launched on Spike a little over six months ago. So that process is continuing to be developed,” Rebney explained.
“We’ve had a ton of guys crossover on things that have been filmed but haven’t aired yet. We’ve done stuff on Ink Masters, we’ve done a ton of stuff that’s going to show up over the next six to nine months. The (Impact Wrestling) integration has been done at a very high level and you’re going to see a lot more of that with Rampage and King Mo. There’s a lot of reality programming, there’s a lot of special feature programming on all the fighters coming up. It’s all just starting.”
Beyond Wednesday’s event, one of the bigger concerns for Bellator on an organizational level is an impending timeslot move to Friday nights. One of Bellator’s problems is that over the course of its existence is that the promotion has kept changing the nights it can be viewed on.
MMA fans, and indeed TV viewers at large are creatures of habit and after a successful debut season on Thursday night it is a risk to make a move so soon. However, Rebney insists that the benefits avoiding competition with the NFL’s Thursday night offerings is worth the risk.
“There’s a lot to be said for ‘same time, same place, same channel’. We haven’t been bashful at all at explaining why we’re moving off of Thursday night. There’s this little animal that creeps around here called the NFL. This little animal does some wickedly good numbers and the demographic that watches the NFL is almost cookie-cutter identical to the demographic that watches Bellator,” Rebney said.
“So, it was just a common sense approach. We didn’t want to go head to head for 10 weeks with the National Football League which is just a behemoth monster in terms of ratings. So we made a move. The issues were we going to move to Wednesday or Friday or back to Saturday and for this fall season Friday night seemed like the best bet in terms of where we can find the best viewership and reach consumers the best. Not to say we’re not going to go back to Thursday nights at some point, but it was a common sense decision. My dad used to say that ‘when stuck in a closet with an 800 pound gorilla, don’t pick a fight. The NFL is that 800 pound gorilla.’”
The choice of Friday night remains an interesting one to reach the coveted 18-34-year-old male demographic. The UFC’s attempt to place TUF on Friday nights was an abject failure, with the two Friday night seasons being the lowest rated in the show’s history. When confronted with the logic that on Friday nights 18-34-year-old males are out of the house chasing 18-34-year-old females, Rebney acknowledges with a laugh.
“Most of the 18-34-year-old men I know are doing that too. But we went a little earlier with the time, and our hopeful anticipation is that guys will come home, have a shower, relax for a little bit, watch some fights and then head out for the night,” Rebney added.
“Because our show goes dark at the time that most guys are looking to go out and do that exact thing. We’re going to find out in very short order. We’re going to find out this September how it works and how people respond to it and what the numbers are.”
Bellator 97 will likely feature tons of promotion for the move to Fridays, which will aid in getting the message to Bellator fans. If the highly-hyped event delivers as promised, it could be the best selling point in getting the audience to follow them.
