The return of former lightweight champion Michael Chandler helped push Bellator 243 to the best ratings of the year for the Viacom-owned promotion.
According to the Nielsen Ratings System, Bellator 243 averaged 403,000 viewers with the main card broadcast kicking off at 10 p.m. ET. The show did a .12 in the coveted 18-49 demographic, which helped Bellator 243 land at No. 48 overall for cable ratings on Friday.
It must also be noted that Bellator 243 was simulcast on DAZN, which is a subscription-based service and those viewership figures are not made available publicly.
The top show of the day was the NBA game between the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors on TNT at 9 p.m. ET, which averaged 1.013 million viewers for the broadcast.
While Bellator has only broadcast four cards so far this year on the Paramount Network, the show headlined by Chandler’s first-round knockout win over former UFC champion Benson Henderson helped propel the show to the top spot in 2020.
Previously, Bellator 240 was the high mark with 310,000 viewers on average.
The next show for the promotion will be Bellator 244, which will see the return of two-division champion Ryan Bader as he puts his light heavyweight title on the line in the main event against Vadim Nemkov.
