Okay, before you flame me, hear me out. *skip to the last paragraph if you don't feel like reading*
Bellator has notoriously been butthurt when fighters sign to the UFC/Zuffa. Brookins, Hollett and now Eddie Alvarez have all had issues with bellator when signing with the UFC. This alone will cause fighters to think twice about signing with bellator, because if you are successful, you are stuck in bellator and not making UFC money, but if you're unsuccessful and get cut, then odds are Zuffa won't be rushing to sign you.
So, if you win, you are stuck and not able to make UFC money, but if you are unsuccessful, chances are joe silva isn't looking to sign you. So what is there to gain long-term? You get stuck in a contract and bellator lets you sign with any other promotion except UFC. (this is proven fact, brookins fought twice before being on the ultimate fighter and when he was successful on TUF bellator tried to sue him for breach of contract, but when he was in the 2 smaller shows before TUF, bellator had no problem.)
this leads to my next point, if they do the reality show in the same way as TUF. (as in they have fighters stay in a house together.) I don't think the fighters will have the same drive as they do in TUF, because the reward for winning not that great (UFC contract > bellator contract) and they will know that their career can't go to the highest level.
Think of it like this, if you were a football player, would your highest career aspiration be for you to be the best college football player or NFL football player? You'd think a person who wanted to be a successful football player would want to eventually make it to the NFL right? Same thing with bellator. The fighters know that they're in the number 2 organization and there is no chance to ever make it to the UFC unless zuffa comes to the rescue like they did to lombard.
No disrespect to bellator, just calling it like i see it, everybody wants to be UFC Champion, and signing with bellator prevents that completely. Every young fighter wants to one day make it to the UFC, they don't want to sign with bellator and possibly never get out, stuck with less pay than UFC on spike tv working for a company that literally "owns" you. Yes, i even think there is something in the contract that allows them to attempt to prevent you from re-signign with another promotion AFTER the match period is up.
Long story short, the fighters on "The Bellator Fighter" or whatever won't have the same motivation as fighters in TUF because if they win their career has practically plateau'd, and they will never have a chance to make huge PPV money. Every young fighter dreams of being in the UFC and being on TUF is a dream come true, compare that to being on bellator's ultimate fighter is like comparing fine dining to mcdonalds.