Paypress testing

Tag: ratings

  • Ratings disappointing for WWE RAW with no competition

    January 4th’s edition of WWE Monday Night Raw did what has to be considered a disappointing number given it was the first week since September that they were without any NFL competition.

    The show did 3.57 million viewers, even with the advertising of Roman Reigns defending the WWE title against Sheamus with Vince McMahon as referee. Worse, even with no football to blame, the second and third hours dropped from the second strongest first hour since April. The number is lower than what the show had been doing in the summer.

    The rating is almost identical to last week when Raw went against the highest rated NFL game of the season, and it’s usually normal to expect a 10 percent increase just based on no NFL competition alone. It is up from the football season average, but given the ratings the first two McMahon appearances drew, it was down from the first and the same as the second without the competition.

    Raw was the highest rated show on cable for the night, however, slightly ahead of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.71 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.52 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 3.50 million viewers

  • TNA Impact debut on POP TV ratings, January 8th PPV confirmed

    TNA’s debut on Pop TV last night drew 111,000 viewers for a “Best of” show which had little going for it past Internet and social mediapromotion.

    TNA and Pop TV had been pushing 1/5 as the debut of the show, built around the final four in the world title tournament.  It was only in the past week when the announcement was made that it would debut with taped programming last night in its new Tuesday at 9 p.m. slot..

    The audience was barely half of the “Days of our Lives” show that did 211,000 viewers.

    While the lack of publicity and fact it wasn’t a new episode means the number really can’t be taken as a strong sign of where they will end up, it is a number that points to where the TNA base audience is at this point.  Between the change of network and change of day, and TNA, with the exception of the move from late Saturday to Thursday prime time, has always taken a hit when changing days, it took take some time before TNA gets to where it will probably be.

    However, the idea that they will get back to Spike levels, which Pop TV execs spoke of, doesn’t seem likely.

    It has been confirmed by TNA that there will be a live PPV show on Friday, 1/8, from Bethlehem, PA.

    inDemand literature had come out advertising the show, taking place three nights after the debut on Pop TV, for a show called “One Night Only Live.”

    That was the name of the show that was originally planned to be taped in India during the canceled tour, as a live special in that country, and would air starting 1/8 as the One Night Only show in the U.S.

  • WWE RAW ratings down 13% from last week

    The Monday, December 21st edition of WWE RAW featuring the Slammy Awards show maintained its audience better than most weeks, and did better than most weeks this past Fall.

    The three-hour show did 3.37 million viewers, down 13 percent from last week’s unusually large number. However, it was still above the levels of most of the Fall season. Just two weeks ago, the show had fallen to 3.16 million viewers.

    Raw probably benefited from a low-rated NFL game on ESPN as competition as the Detroit Lions vs. New Orleans Saints game did 10.90 million viewers.

    The first hour started at normal Fall levels, but the second and third hour decline wasn’t there at the rate it usually is.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.44 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.37 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 3.32 million viewers

    The show’s main event was WWE Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus in a cage match. The other big item of note is that John Cena returns next week, so it will be interesting to see how that affects viewership.

  • Ratings for UFC on FOX 17 disappointing

    The fast national ratings for Saturday’s UFC on FOX were disappointing as the show did a 0.9 in the key 18-49 demo and 2.28 million viewers.

    Keep in mind that this number covers what the FOX affiliates did between 8-10 p.m. Eastern, 7-9 p.m. Central, 6-8 p.m. Mountain and 8-10 p.m. Pacific time.  That means it doesn’t include the main event, which started at about 10 p.m. and figures in West Coast programming that wasn’t the UFC which aired from 5-7 p.m. Pacific.

    With the short main event, the growth from these numbers is unlikely to be as much as in most past FOX shows.

    The number was weak for a football season number for a UFC show, and more along the lines of a summer show. Also, UFC usually wins the 18-49 demo with the networks and here, it finished third as both ABC and CBS are listed as doing 1.1 for prelim numbers with ABC running the Democratic Debate (6.71 million viewers) and CBS running an NCIS repeat (5.15 million), a Criminal Minds repeat (5.20 million) and a 48 Hours repeat (5.80 million). FOX only beat NBC, which aired The Wiz repeat that did a 0.4 in the demo and 1.59 million viewers.

    The UFC also had to compete with an NFL game (Cowboys vs. Jets) on NFL Network, as well as people going to the movies to see the new Star Wars movie which has been crushing all-time box office numbers since it came out Thursday night.

    Actual numbers will be released on Monday or Tuesday.

  • The positives and negatives of Monday’s Raw ratings

    The Good:

    Hour 1 was the first hour of Monday Night RAW to do over 4 million viewers since Hour 2 of the July 20th show earlier this year. This was the first show to open at over 4 million viewers since June 15th. Hour 3’s 3,825,000 viewers were the highest since 3,830,000 on August 31st. The average viewership was the highest since that same August 31st show. That show featured the return of Sting.

    RAW’s viewership average was 10.67% higher than the 2014 post-TLC show, which averaged 3,510,000  viewers. This was just the 3rd week in the last 52 that RAW showed an increase in viewers from the same  week the previous year. One of those was the post-Mania show, which aired a week earlier this year. 

    The Bad:

    November’s weekly average viewers for RAW was 3,168,000 viewers, down almost 18% from the November 2014 average of 3,988,000. That was the 12th straight month that RAW showed a decreased number of viewers from the same month a year prior. Even with the impressive number on Monday, RAW is averaging just 3,469,000 in December, down from 3,628,000 in 2014. The show would need to average about 3.8 million viewers over the next two weeks to stop the streak at 12 months of declining ratings. And it would take an extended ratings turnaround for RAW to hit the pre-Mania numbers of 4.035 million (January), 4,013,000 (February) and 4,228,000 (March) of 2015 even with no competition from Monday night football. 

    Thoughts:

    Obviously the buzz surrounding the closing angle of TLC the night before piqued curiosity in this show, leading to the very strong first hour. RAW managed to maintain most of that audience throughout the show. Theoretically the numbers should’ve increased in the third hour leading to the championship match but perhaps fans felt that WWE wouldn’t deliver on a decisive finish and title change. The fact that they did could bring back fan confidence that they have turned things around heading into the Royal Rumble-Wrestlemania season.

  • WWE Raw ratings way up with Vince McMahon return

    After a fall season where ratings were at an all-time low, the return of Vince McMahon and the Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns title vs. being fired match led to an increase for the Monday, December 14th edition of WWE RAW to 848,000 viewers over last week — a whopping 27 percent.

    The show did 3.87 million viewers, but the key is that the first hour did 4.04 million viewers. They were way up early, which has to do with curiosity coming off the post-match attack by Reigns on HHH at the close of the TLC ppv. The announcement that Vince would be there also came in the first 15 minutes of the show, and after more than a year off the show, the return of Vince should have helped.

    The second hour, which included McMahon’s first interview, did 3.79 million viewers. The third hour, with the Reigns vs. Sheamus title change, did 3.83 million viewers. Not only did they have far higher viewership to start the show than in months, but they kept most of the viewers for the three hours, which they haven’t been able to do in months.

    Last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio show for subscribers has a full rundown and analysis of the show, Vince’s return and Roman Reigns’ WWE World Heavyweight Title win.

  • Classic Audio: September 24, 2008 Wrestling Observer Radio

    This week’s classic audio takes a look at declining ratings in 2008 and addresses the problem of adults losing interest in wrestling. With WWE setting record low ratings recently, it’s interesting to look back to 2008 and what has been a growing problem for years.

    The second part of the show is an hour long interview with the director of “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”, a documentary discussing steroid use. Chris Bell talks with Dave and Bryan about his film, what can be done about steroids in wrestling and MMA, performance enhancers, and tons more.

    Right click save.

  • TNA ratings up for final tournament action on Destination America

    The Wednesday, December 9th edition of TNA Impact Wrestling that featured the quarterfinals of the TNA title tournament saw the ratings rise from recent weeks with 269,000 viewers tuning in for the 9 p.m. show and 68,000 tuning in for the midnight show for a grand total of 337,000 viewers.

    That 9 p.m number was up from usual but the midnight number fell right in line with the norm.

    Given that the entire tournament of taped matches is now complete (the previously taped semifinals and finals are being scrapped and redone) the last few weeks on Destination America will be time fills of two hours with old taped matches before the company’s January 5th live show launch on Pop TV.

    The semifinals will feature Matt Hardy vs. Eric Young and Bobby Lashley vs. Ethan Carter III. The winner will move onto the finals which will be the main event of the January 5th debut.

  • New Day’s unicorn horns unable to save WWE RAW ratings

    Raw last night did 3.04 million viewers, the second lowest modern number, beating only the 2.95 million of the 11/23 show.

    The number was down from last week partially due to the show falling off the tracks late, but also the Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins game did 14.15 million viewers, a number very close to the game on 11/23, while last week’s game did 10.12 million viewers.

    The three hours were:

    8 p.m. 3.27 million viewers
    9 p.m. 3.04 million viewers
    10 p.m. 2.85 million viewers

  • Bellator garners 655,000 viewers for final show of 2015

    Last Friday’s Bellator 147 event averaged 656,000 viewers on Spike TV, headlined by former Strikeforce lightweight champion and UFC fighter Josh Thomson knocking out Pablo Villaseca. This was the final show of the year for Bellator, and the average viewership for their regular Friday night shows was 655,833 viewers – virtually identical to what they did Friday.

    Notes:

    – Bellator ran 16 shows in 2015; 12 regular shows (down 3.1% from 2014’s average viewership of 676,571) and 4 “tentpole” shows. They ran 21 regular shows in 2014 and plan to move to a more frequent schedule again in 2016.

    – The 4 tentpole shows for the year averaged 1,016,500 viewers — greatly inflated by the 1,580,000 viewers for the Kimbo Slice-Ken Shamrock show in June. In fact that number was almost twice as high as their next highest rated show, which was the 872,000 viewers for the February British Invasion show. In 2014, they ran one tentpole show, Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131, which did 1,241,000 viewers.

    – For their 16 shows this year, Bellator averaged 746,000 viewers overall for 22 shows, up 6.2% from the 2014 average of 702,227 viewers. 

    Thoughts:

    – 4 of the last 5 Friday night regular shows have done between 650,000 and 669,000 viewers, so that seems to be what their steady audience is, going up a couple hundred thousand viewers for a tentpole show. It’s only when they bring in a name that would mean something to very casual fans (like Ortiz, Shamrock or Slice) that they are able to get to the 1 million threshold and beyond.

    – Bellator has three shows upcoming in January and February with the big one being Bellator 149 on February 19th. That show will feature Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Slice vs Dada 5000. It should break the company’s viewership record if those two fights take place as scheduled.