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Tag: ratings

  • ‘The Final Deletion’ helps TNA grow viewership to 410,000

    The absurdity of “The Final Deletion” ultimately proved to be a success for TNA Wrestling.

    According to ShowBuzzDaily, this week’s edition of Impact did 410,000 viewers on television, up from 322,000 viewers the previous week. It was the highest rated episode of Impact on Pop TV and the highest rated episode since May 2015.

    TNA put a lot of effort into promoting the event and generated a significant social media buzz. They sent out screeners of the match and uploaded video of various people from the wrestling and film industries reacting to it.

    TNA hopes that the buzz they created with the Final Deletion will lead to sustained ratings succes, and that will be tested with next week’s Destination X edition of Impact featuring Bobby Lashley vs. Eddie Edwards in a title vs. title match. 

    Given the success of the Final Deletion, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the organization think outside of the box with similar ideas and use similar promotional tactics in the future.

  • Raw doesn’t fall nearly to the level expected on July 4th

    While WWE set an all-time record low for Raw on Monday, the rating can’t be viewed negatively given the number and the night.

    The show averaged 2.66 million viewers, down only 14 percent from the near record low from the prior week. The past two times Raw has aired on July 4th (2011 and 2005), the ratings fell 23 percent and 41 percent respectively from the prior week.

    Raw was far and away the most watched show on cable, since all the shows on cable that usually provide competition took the night off. It also beat the FOX network programming head-to-head.  Only four other shows on cable hit 1.5 million viewers.

    From the hourly breakdown, it appeared to be the most loyal/hardcore audience since there were no upswings or downswings from start-to-finish:

    • 8 p.m. 2.66 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 2.67 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.64 million viewers

    The show featured Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz, another John Cena/Club confrontation, and a 16-man elimination match to close the show.

  • Even with weak TV competition, RAW ratings drop to 3.09 million viewers

    After last week’s current day strong RAW number following the surprising Dean Ambrose WWE title win, ratings came down for the Monday, June 27th edition of the show on a night without strong television competition.

    Raw did 3.09 million viewers, the lowest number on a night without major team sports competition since 1997 . That’s the second lowest numbers outside of football season or major holidays, beating only the 2.96 million viewers drawn two weeks ago against game five of the NBA playoffs.

    The ratings pattern showed that people were at a low level of interest going in with a unusually weak first hour. There was some second hour growth, and a small third hour decline. However, it wasn’t the usual big third hour drop so the fans who were there stuck through the show for the most part. 

    Raw was third for the night on cable, trailing TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles (4.36 million viewers) and TNT’s Major Crimes (3.99 million viewers), barely beating Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor (3.05 million viewers).

    Viewership dropped 11 percent from last week, showing the big gain caused by the post-Money in the Bank buzz didn’t sustain.

    The Olympic swimming trials on NBC did 5.17 million viewers, so one can argue there was some sports competition, but that was only against the first hour of the show.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.10 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.17 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 3.01 million viewers

  • WWE RAW ratings dip below 3 million viewers

    Photo: WWE.com

    It finally happened. Thanks, in part, to going head-to-head with Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the June 13th edition of WWE Raw fell below the 3 million viewer mark for the first time outside of football season.

    The show did 2.96 million viewers — the second lowest for a non-holiday episode of the show since 1997, as there was a show in November that did 2.95 million viewers. The prior seasonal record low was 3.12 million viewers, and while the rating isn’t out as of this writing, it should equate to a 2.1 or 2.2 rating.

    The Golden State Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game on ABC did 20.53 million viewers.

    Raw was fourth for the night on cable, trailing Rizzoli & Isles on TNT, Major Crimes on TNT, and The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News.

    The show opened weak, even though it started before the NBA game, and had a fairly significant third hour drop.  

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.04 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.76 million viewers

  • John Cena’s return helps Raw ratings hold steady against strong NBA competition

    John Cena wasn’t quite the miracle worker, but his return was enough to keep the Memorial Day Raw viewership numbers above the all-time seasonal low — even with the show going against the single most-watched NBA game in the history of cable television.

    Raw did 3.22 million viewers, the second lowest non-football total other than a major holiday* where people don’t watch television since 1997, beating only the 4/25 show that did 3.16 million viewers.

    The surprise is that the third hour stayed above 3 million viewers.

    Without the advertising of Cena, it was very unlikely the show would have beaten the 4/25 record low. His return was promoted for weeks and he did media like NBC’s Today show that morning.

    The seventh game of the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Western Conference semifinal did 15,996,000 viewers. The opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs with the San Jose Sharks losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins did 4,081,000 viewers.

    Raw was third for the night on cable. 

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.28 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.32 million viewers
    • 10 p.m 3.08 million viewers

    *A note on the definition of Memorial Day not being considered a “major holiday”: Holidays that kill ratings are July 4th, Thanksgiving night, New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve. Memorial Day and Labor Day ratings are usually similar to usual levels. This past Monday, far more people were watching TV than usual, actually.

  • WWE RAW ratings grow slightly

    The Monday, May 23rd edition of WWE Raw was up slightly this week to 3.26 million viewers, up three percent from last week.

    This show came the day after the Extreme Rules PPV with the cliffhanger ending featuring the return of Seth Rollins.

    The number was hurt by the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors NBA playoff game that did 6.14 million viewers. For a comparison, Raw last week did 3.17 million viewers but the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder NBA playoff game did 8.71 million viewers, which was much tougher competition.

    The first hour was actually slightly down from last week, but the rating was up because the show didn’t have the big third hour drop of the week before.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m.: 3.36 million viewers
    • 9 p.m.: 3.33 million viewers
    • 10 p.m.: 3.12 million viewers

    Dancing with the Stars’ final Monday night show of the season featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant in the final three contestants did 12.34 million viewers. The show brought in 69% of its audience by women in the 18-49 demo.

    The Friday replay of Monday Night RAW from May 16th did 467,000 viewers on SyFy with no promotion whatsoever. That show, and Wynona Earp (which site friend Lance Storm has a small role in) were the only two shows on that network to crack the top 150 cable programs for the night.

  • Despite NBA ratings smash, WWE RAW’s ratings avoid seasonal lows

    A big third hour drop and a massive NBA playoff game resulted in WWE coming close to seasonal lows for the May 16th edition of Raw, but ending just above that mark.

    The show did 3.17 million viewers — just above the 3.12 million viewers for the April 25th show — but lower than any other non-holiday Raw outside of football season since 1997.

    The first hour, which didn’t oppose the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game, was the highest rated show on cable. Raw was No. 3 on cable behind the game and the post game show, Inside The NBA

    There was a huge drop in Raw’s third hour, which was predicted given everything that was going on. The basketball game was up 28% in viewers from a similar Warriors playoff game last season.

    The key is that even though there are more viewers of Dancing With The Stars (11.64 million) than the NBA game (8.1 million), the latter seems to have impacted Raw more significantly. 

    DWTS draws double the women’s adult audience as men, while the NBA game was made up of 66% males or about double the women’s audience in the 18-49 demo. Raw does numbers similar to that of the NBA in that regard. Also of note in sports Monday, the San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues NHL playoff game did 1.71 million viewers.

    Raw was only down two percent from last week with that tougher competition. The first two hours were similar to last week with hour one slightly up and hour two slightly down. But, the third hour was down four percent from last week. 

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.38 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.30 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.89 million viewers

  • “New Era” Raw ratings back down to “Really Old Era” levels

    The continuation of the “New Era” of Raw didn’t ended up being a positive factor in the ratings as the Monday, May 9th edition of the show did 3.23 million viewers, down six percent from last week. It was the second lowest rating for a show outside of football season since 1997.

    A week ago, the combination of a post-PPV show and the first Stephanie & Shane McMahon show did 3.43 million viewers. The modern era low for a show outside of football season or a major holiday was 3.12 million viewers which was set two weeks ago.

    Dancing With the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, remained the most-watched show on television with 11.33 million viewers.

    Raw was third on cable for the night, trailing two NBA playoff games on TNT. The first, which went head-to-head with Raw, did 4.01 milliion viewers while the late night game, which started just before Raw ended, did 6.16 million viewers.

    In this week’s case, the culprit was that the audience at the start was lower than usual. The second hour was the high point, although the first two hours were virtually identical. There was a third hour drop, but it wasn’t as bad as some have been. The real story of the low number wasn’t people tuning out, but that they didn’t tune in at their usual levels to begin with.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.35 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.36 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 3.01 million viewers

    Subscribers can access Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez’s Wrestling Observer Radio Raw report here.

  • WWE RAW ratings drop 6 percent on an overall bad night for cable

    Monday night was bad news ratings-wise for WWE as not only did RAW decline six percent from last week’s seasonal modern record low, but the 3.12 million viewers the company garnered for the 4/25 edition of the show were marginally better overall than two fall episodes that suffered due to NFL programming.

    The drop showed that it was the pattern that is the key issue and not because last week’s show was taped. Daylight Savings Time also isn’t an excuse as it was the first hour that was the most viewed with a decline throughout the show’s final two hours. (The really bad number, based on patterns, was hour two.)

    Even so, it was a bad night for cable as Raw was the only show to top 3 million viewers (that includes two NBA playoff games on TNT). The game going against RAW did 2.54 million viewers and the late game that started at 10:46 p.m. did 2.97 million viewers.

    ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, did 11.75 million viewers — the most watched show on television.

    Raw’s three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.26 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.18 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 2.94 million viewers

    Not all is bad though as RAW was the most tweeted-about show on Monday night.

  • WWE RAW breaks record low rating

    Going against the NBA playoffs and with a taped show, Raw last night broke a new record for the least watched episode on its regular night outside of football season with 3.32 million viewers.

    The show fell victim to a big third hour drop which led to it falling below the previous low mark set on 2/1 at 3.37 million viewers.

    Dancing with the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, also had a big drop to 10.95 million viewers.

    There were a number of shows during football season last year, as well as the 1/11 show against the college football championship game, that did lower numbers than Raw.

    Raw was still the second highest rated show on cable, beating the NBA game on TBS that went head-to-head and did 3.21 million viewers, but falling behind the Warriors-Rockets late game that did 4.42 million viewers.

    Keep in mind that the actual viewers of both games would be significantly higher if you included the local market broadcasts of each game.

    The seasonal pattern of people tuning in late that comes after Daylight Savings time was in effect, but the pattern that the third hour doesn’t drop as much during that season was not.  The first two hours were in the same range as last week, so the record low was entirely due to the big third hour drop.

    The three hours were:

    8 p.m. 3.49 million viewers
    9 p.m. 3.54 million viewers
    10 p.m. 2.98 million viewers