Ratings: TUF flops, Bendo’s Bellator debut peaks above 1 million, GGG a hit on HBO again

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a ratings report, but I suppose a week which included a UFC event, two episodes of TUF, Bellator 153, Bellator Kickboxing (on a week’s tape delay), and GGG on HBO merits a round-up of all the television viewing numbers you need to know.

We start off with the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 23, coached by strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk and #1 ranked UFC contender Claudia Gadelha. Ratings for last Wednesday’s debut were the worst in the show’s history, with an average of 479,000 (per Sports TV Ratings). Since TUF moved to FS1 in late 2013, the highest rated season premiere was for TUF 18: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate at 762,000 viewers, while the lowest one prior to TUF 23 was 536,000 viewers for TUF 20: Team Pettis vs. Team Melendez in fall 2014. For some good news, +3 DVR ratings bumped the number up to 705,000, per Jason Floyd of The MMA Report.

This past Wednesday’s episode 2 dipped below 400,000, as Sports TV Ratings had the Nielsen average at 387,000. DVR numbers are not in yet.

Moving on over to Bellator 153, and truth be told, this is one of those cards where the ratings were all about the main event. The overall average (+3 DVR) is 686,000, which ranks it 3rd out of 6 Bellator events this year and 4th out of the 5 cards they’ve aired live. …

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