Comparing apples to oranges here my friend. The did virtually the same in prelim ratings. Bellator with around 670ish and the UFC with about 680ish. Virtually identical(no pun intended)
U can't compare live peaks with +3 peaks.
Neither number was good by their respective standards but adding a bit of context, it could have been worse for both.
Bellator went up against NHL and NBA. Ufc went up against some stiff competition as well.