Spike TV scored its largest MMA audience in five years for Friday’s Bellator 149. In other news, the U.S. women’s soccer team scored its largest audience on NBCSN, and NBA TV saw fewer viewers for its special Vince Carter interview last week.
Bellator 149 Big For Spike TV
- Bellator 149 earned a 1.2 final rating and 2.0 million viewers on Spike TV Friday night — the largest audience in Bellator history and the largest MMA audience on Spike TV since March 2011. Viewership peaked at 2.5 million during the Kimbo Slice/Dada 5000 match, dropping to 2.4 million for the three-minute main event between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. (Programming Insider, MMA Weekly)
USWNT Sets NBCSN Mark
- Friday’s United States/Trinidad & Tobago women’s soccer match, the semifinal of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, had 329,000 viewers on NBCSN — the network’s largest women’s soccer audience outside of the Olympics. Last Monday’s USA/Puerto Rico match had 243,000, and USA/Mexico had 229,000 back on February 13. Final numbers for Sunday’s USA/Canada final were unavailable, but it had a 0.2 overnight. (via Twitter, ShowBuzz Daily)
Vince Carter Interview Down on NBA TV
- NBA TV scored 149,000 viewers for its now traditional post-All Star interview special, which this year featured Vince Carter — down 39% from last year’s Kobe Bryant interview (246K) and down 28% from a 2014 interview with LeBron James (241K). The show was outdrawn head-to-head by Football Life: Marshall Faulk on NFL Network (154K). (via Sports TV Ratings)
