10-11-12 Impact TV Ratings: Poor Rating Leading to BFG

Last edited by King Silva on Mon 15 Oct 2012, 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/TNA_News_1/article_65908.shtml

TNA Impact on Thursday, October 11 leading to the Bound for Glory PPV scored a dismal 0.86 rating, essentially even with last week's year-low 0.84 rating.

Thursday's live Impact averaged 1.12 million viewers, which was up slightly from a two-year-low average of 1.06 million viewers last week.

- On cable TV Thursday night, Impact ranked #44 in overall viewers, #26 among males 18-34, and #27 among males 18-49, which are all alarmingly-low ranks in Spike TV's key demos.

Cable TV was dominated by the Vice Presidential debate, which went head-to-head with Impact's second hour. This meant TNA likely did not get much of a second hour boost after a slow start in the new first hour timeslot. Meanwhile, the Steelers-Titans NFL game on NFL Network averaged 5.6 million viewers and the MLB Playoffs averaged 5.2 million viewers.

Impact was topped in key male demos by "Pawn Stars" repeats on History, a female-skew movie, "Easy A," on FX, "King of the HIll" repeat on Adult Swim, and a Jeff Dunham comedy special on Comedy Central, among other shows.

Looking at Impact's demographic ratings compared to last week, the show was essentially flat with last week's demo ratings.

- Last year, the final Impact before BFG scored a 1.05 rating and averaged 1.44 million viewers.

Two years ago during the build-up to the 10-10-10 reveal at Bound for Glory, the final Impact before the PPV scored a 1.33 rating for a comparable live broadcast. This year's live Impact was down 35 percent. Even factoring in changing viewing habits two years later with more DVR viewing, a reasonable adjustment would be a 25-30 percent decline.

Caldwell's Analysis: If the trade-off for going live was moving up an hour earlier to 8:00 p.m. EST, the trade-off clearly was not worth it. Through 20 weeks of being live an hour earlier, the show has lost all momentum during the biggest season of the year for TNA. It's also become apparent that being live has not made a difference over the long haul. If TNA was set on going live, perhaps the better option would have been going live once a month and staying in the same timeslot, rather than going live every week, especially when Impact looks the same live as it does taped and doesn't make a difference to the general audience. Now, they've burned through the "we gotta go live!" tool in the toolbox while simultaneously being burned by the earlier timeslot.

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/TNA_News_1/article_65965.shtml

TNA Impact on Thursday, October 11 leading to the Bound for Glory PPV officially scored a 0.87 rating off a first hour 0.82 rating and second hour 0.92 rating.

No quarter-hour during the show topped a 1.0. The peak was a 0.95 rating in Q5 and Q6 to start the second hour, but the show trailed off to a 0.89 rating in Q8.

First Hour Break Down

Q1: Impact was hurt by another slow start, this time a 0.72 rating, which tied the very first week when Impact went live an hour earlier in the new timeslot on May 31. The first quarter-hour featured an impromptu and inefficiently-presented Austin Aries vs. James Storm match to start the show. There was also one commercial. (Q1 down 17.3% vs. live summer run Q1 average)

Q2: Impact increased to a 0.80 rating as the audience found the show. The second-lowest-rated segment of the show featured Hulk Hogan, Sting, Daniels & Kazarian, and Bully Ray in the ring setting up the TV main event. There was also one commercial. (Q2 down 11.4% vs. live summer run Q2 average)

Q3: Impact increased to a 0.86 rating as the audience continued tuning in. The segment featured A.J. Styles vs. Hernandez, one commercial, Zema Ion and RVD setting up an X Division Title match at Bound for Glory, and backstage with Hogan & Sting. (Q3 down 7.9% vs. live summer run Q3 average)

Q4: Impact increased to a first-hour-high 0.89 rating for the first-half of Sting & Bully Ray vs. Daniels & Kazarian, plus two full commercial breaks. (Q4 down 3.6% vs. live summer run Q4 average)

Second Hour Break Down

Q5: Impact only slightly increased to a 0.95 rating at the start of the second hour for the conclusion of Sting & Ray vs. Daniels & Kaz, plus one commercial and various non-wrestling segments. (Q5 down 10.9% vs. live summer run Q5 average)

Q6: Impact stayed at a 0.95 rating for Miss Tessmacher vs. Gail Kim for half of the quarter-hour, one commercial, and Bobby Roode, James Storm, and King Mo backstage. (Q6 down 8.1% vs. live summer run Q6 average)

Q7: Impact slipped to a 0.90 rating for video packages, Tenay and Taz on-camera breaking down the BFG PPV line-up, one commercial, ring introductions for the main event, and the first few minutes of the Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode main event. (Q7 down 12.6% vs. live summer run Q7 average)

Q8: Impact was essentially flat with a 0.89 rating for the conclusion of Hardy vs. Roode, one commercial, and Austin Aries's post-match promo leading into Hardy vs. Aries for the TNA Title at BFG. (Q8 down 17.0% vs. live summer run Q8 average)

Caldwell's Analysis: The whole show was down, overall, so the trends aren't as evident, but the show ended on a flat note leading into the biggest PPV of the year. TNA also struggled to draw in audience on the final two episodes before the PPV because of how their top stars were booked. Roode and Storm were over-exposed and lost momentum, Hardy was treated like a mime who didn't want to speak up to Aries, and Aries's character suddenly went from defending TNA against Aces & Eights to hating the company in a span of a few weeks. TNA then put those stars in match situations without establishing why the matches were important. As a result, TNA simply did not have a chance against strong TV competition on Thursday night.

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Once again the KOs are apart of the highest rated quarter...

» Another Poor Rating For 6-28 Live Impact
» Quarter-Hour Ratings For June 7th's Impact Leading Into Slammiversary Are In
» Quarter-Hour Ratings Report for 9/8/11's Impact Leading to No Surrender
» Quarter-Hour Ratings Report For 11/10/11 Impact Leading to Turning Point
» Impact Wrestling Live Ratings Are in - Poor Start in New Timeslot With 12 Percent Drop-Off