It’s emerged that Bellator have altered their fight schedule so that they’ll now be hosting just two ‘summer series’ events instead of it’s traditional three.
Bellator and Spike TV haven’t given an explanation for the change, but the timing of it suggests that it could be down to the poor ratings suffered by the first event in the series last week.
Bellator 96 drew just 480,000 viewers, almost half as many as they were averaging during their previous season on Spike TV earlier this year, with the premiere of the ‘Fight Master’ reality show also underperforming with 432,000 viewers.
The ‘Fight Master’ show will continue on a weekly basis though, and it needs a big boost in it’s audience over the coming weeks if it’s to be viewed as anything other than a failure for the network.
Meanwhile, Bellator will resume a normal weekly schedule in September for their ninth season which switches to Friday nights on Spike TV.
