Are the Low Ratings because of Overexposure?

[Uncle Sam]

I don't mean to make you think I know what I'm talking about. I have, however, read Eric Bischoff's autobiography. If you were on a desert island, you'd want me there. I could entertain you with great tales, such as the invention of 'Ninja Star Wars' or turning down Jerry Jarrett's offer.

But anyway, two out of four WWE shows are now getting similar or lower ratings than TNA 'iMPACT!'. Have you ever seen that show? It's terrible. Now, I don't pretend to have ever watched ECW or Superstars (which has been running for so long, you'd think I would have) but I'm guessing they must be better than that. SmackDown! is only, like, .3 ahead of TNA. Ridiculous, considering it's actually a really good show lately.

If I were an American, or someone with a half decent digital package, I'd be fucking sick of wrestling. By the time Friday rolled around, I'd be more in the mood for wanking myself to death than watching SmackDown!.

Would getting rid of Superstars and consolidating ECW into SmackDown! help the ratings crisis?

[ulimate123]

Not neccessarily. Firstly, if a person doesn't want to watch ECW they more than likely wont tune into it and vice-versa. I think the problem lies within their PG rating. Simply put, kids and children aren't regular viewers. Hell more than half of them probably don't even know when RAW/ECW/SD!/Superstars! come on and probably catch a repeat some over time when they flicking the TV channels. Secondly RAW comes on too late and so does SD! and it is on a weekday when most of the children are asleep for school tommorow.

[LokiCobain]

I personally want wrestling every night. If they were to mix up the brands, then maybe they should cut back, but when you have 3 brands, even though it's the same company, it's a different roster showcasing different talent. I don't like the Superstars idea, because that would lead to overexposure, especially since the brands usually mix up right before and right after Wrestlemania, so the brands aren't truly set.

Although I like Impact, another reason for lower ratings could be that a) not many people get the channel Superstars is on (I don't), and b) Spike is a channel with a viewership of testosterone guys and Impact follows UFC, while Sci Fi is a channel with a viewership of intelligence following some throw back of Star Trek: Next Generation. Granted people can always just tune in, there is a less chance of someone being like, "oh, I'm going to hang around on this channel and see what this is". Besides being on Sci Fi, ECW is also on at 9 (10 now I believe), and when you're a PG company targeting kids, there's no marketing reason why you'd put a show on past 8. They have school the next day.

But finally, what I think is the biggest hit to ratings in general is the online wrestling community. I don't watch Smackdown because I tend to be doing things at 8:00 on Friday nights. But I also know what happens anyway. I know what happens on Tuesday actually. I know what's going to happen in future weeks, and why would I watch if I know what will happen, especially when the few matches they actually have aren't even that good? I would much rather get the bullet points to a 30-minute interview session than watch gaps of silence live.

[AGE OF KNOWLEDGE]

At the current moment WWE has several reasons why the ratings are dropping. NBA Playoffs, NHL Playoffs, MLB Games, & Over exposure. TNA isnt quite a threat to Vince as WCW was. TNA is limited due to money reasons. Over exposure is the the best way to get a stale product to. I must admit for health reasons, familt time, & preventing a stale product Vince needs to allow his athletes to rest after Mania for a minium of 2-3 months. Having 4 shows a week & a PPV every 3wks is insane. I share the love & passion for the sport, but I also believe we may another "Benoit Story" by the next Generation if Vince wont come to terms with a season. Just my opinion... WWE will always be #1 Regardless!

[mrstlouis]

I don't mean to make you think I know what I'm talking about. I have, however, read Eric Bischoff's autobiography. If you were on a desert island, you'd want me there. I could entertain you with great tales, such as the invention of 'Ninja Star Wars' or turning down Jerry Jarrett's offer.

But anyway, two out of four WWE shows are now getting similar or lower ratings than TNA 'iMPACT!'. Have you ever seen that show? It's terrible. Now, I don't pretend to have ever watched ECW or Superstars (which has been running for so long, you'd think I would have) but I'm guessing they must be better than that. SmackDown! is only, like, .3 ahead of TNA. Ridiculous, considering it's actually a really good show lately.

If I were an American, or someone with a half decent digital package, I'd be fucking sick of wrestling. By the time Friday rolled around, I'd be more in the mood for wanking myself to death than watching SmackDown!.

Would getting rid of Superstars and consolidating ECW into SmackDown! help the ratings crisis?

The reason smackdown gets low rating compared to when it was on UPN & CW is because no one really gets mynetwork here in america & that is the real problem.smackdown would get higher ratings if everybody got mynetwork. smackdown was always in 2.0 & above rating until they went to nynetwork. s getting rid of Superstars and consolidating ECW into SmackDown would not help but hurt .. see us americans don't get sick of wrestling because back in the monday night war era we had the same amount of wrestling as now or little more . so we are happy to have this much wrestling to watch with some much crappy stuff on tv

[The Deejish Invasion]

People are getting sick of wrestling as a whole, not just the WWE, TNA is on a steady decline, ECW is maintaining the status quo, Smackdown is on a network that is not carried as much as CW, so the ratings decline is bound to happen, the fact is we have too much wrestling as a whole now, with Raw Monday ECW tuesday, TNA thursday, Superstars Thursday and ROH saturday, with PPV sundays also of course people are going to go nuts but their are also other factors...

Writing: The storylines of todays sports entertainment franchise are getting stale, we get too many poo poo jokes and not enough creative promos anymore, as Jim Cornette stated once before you have people writing for wrestling in hopes they get a job on a sitcom, you cant have people who have no knowledge of the business writing for it.

Vince doesnt let wrestlers actually get themselves over: the talent isnt getting over because most are not doing what they used to to get themselves over, guys like CM Punk, Kennedy, Kendrick could all easily get over if the WWE didnt try to write for them too much, and provide them with stupid gimmicks.

[Lord Sidious]

The reason smackdown gets low rating compared to when it was on UPN & CW is because no one really gets mynetwork here in america & that is the real problem.smackdown would get higher ratings if everybody got mynetwork. smackdown was always in 2.0 & above rating until they went to nynetwork. s getting rid of Superstars and consolidating ECW into SmackDown would not help but hurt .. see us americans don't get sick of wrestling because back in the monday night war era we had the same amount of wrestling as now or little more . so we are happy to have this much wrestling to watch with some much crappy stuff on tv

The highest rating Smackdown received on MyNetworkTV was a 2.3. That was on February 27th. They also have produced many 2.2's and 2.1's.

So, clearly they are capable of producing in the 2.0 range.

Last week, they did a 1.6 rating.

My question to you is, if WWE has the capability of producing in the 2.0 range and higher on MyNetworkTV and has shown that they can do so, than what is the excuse for the .7 ratings drop from a 2.3 to a 1.6 on that network?

Clearly, there is more to the problem than just the Network.

[Milkyway!]

Smackdown ratings could be because of MyNetwork TV slowly crumbling down onto itself..Your idea makes no since really, for the simple fact of Superstars is getting lower than a 1.0 and ECW is getting lower than a 1.5. Raw gets a 3.0+ more than usual. Smackdown keeps about a 2.0+ But took a sparatic drop this past week plummiting to a 1.7 if I'm not mistaken droping .5. Why? Is it overexposure? Well that would require people to actually watch ECW//Superstars for it to be overexposure.

Smackdown has been great. I blaim Mynetwork. Superstars has some amazing wrestling, I blaim the playoffs. ECW has always kept a steady 1.0-1.3 which for scifi is good. For wwe standards is good, its only a development show. RAW could use a little tweaking, they proved around Wrestlemania they have more fans than they are getting, its just an abnormally boring show I can't sit through an entire episode of RAW anymore...Usually only the Main Event, and the first segment of the night.

But as Sam said in the first post. I'm not expert what do I know?

[The_Don_of_WWE]

If you really want to know the truth why the ratings are droping, I could give you a list of reasons why. 1) The whole PG thing is not working for us grown men. It makes us feel like we are watching cartoons. As some one also pointed out, what parents you know let their kids on a school night stay up and watch WWE?. 2) Vince is doing the shows to his liking and not the fans. Why wouldn't he push people with real talent or atleast give them a test run and see how they do. 3) We the fans are tired of seeing the same thing week after week and the same people in the main event and the same people chasing the title. Give us a breath of fresh air for once. Let's see some one like Kennedy with the strap or MVP or Shelton. People with real talent. Some poeple say some of them don't have mic skills, I just say neither did Ultimate Warrior and he also had no wrestling skills and he got push to the moon and beyond and still did Vince dirty. I guess that's what floats his boat.

[Lord Sidious]

If you really want to know the truth why the ratings are droping, I could give you a list of reasons why. 1) The whole PG thing is not working for us grown men. It makes us feel like we are watching cartoons. As some one also pointed out, what parents you know let their kids on a school night stay up and watch WWE?. 2) Vince is doing the shows to his liking and not the fans. Why wouldn't he push people with real talent or atleast give them a test run and see how they do. 3) We the fans are tired of seeing the same thing week after week and the same people in the main event and the same people chasing the title. Give us a breath of fresh air for once. Let's see some one like Kennedy with the strap or MVP or Shelton. People with real talent. Some poeple say some of them don't have mic skills, I just say neither did Ultimate Warrior and he also had no wrestling skills and he got push to the moon and beyond and still did Vince dirty. I guess that's what floats his boat.


Absolutely hit the nail on the head.

PG has its place, but so does TV-14. Being that Vince has a monopoly over the business and has no serious competition offering alternative products, he needs to be the one to take the initiative to offer the product alternatives within his organization.

Neither a PG product should be offered only by itself. Nor should only a Y14 product be offered by itself. There are different ages at play here, and to tell one age bracket that they should be liking what another age bracket likes, in this day and age, is simply unrealistic. You are simply not going to get away with telling adults that they should have the same interests as a 9 year old kid, anymore.

But as pointed out, Vince puts himself in the mindset of a fan, and simply writes his shows from there. He does not generally care about feedback to his shows, unless it clearly hurts him in the wallet, or a network starts breathing down his neck. Then, he starts paying attention. Unfortunately, this is a gradual deterioration over a period of time, that is happening little by little as the months go by. Yet, he is not convinced to listen to what his audience is trying to tell him is wrong with the product.

He eliminated his competition, which all offered a unique variety of wrestling products to the total wrestling audience ... but he never bothered replacing those product alternatives those companies offered to the fans.

Basically, what we have in this day and age, is one product. And it's pretty scary that today's product is essentially ... a modern day WCW.

It is PG and Family Friendly.
There is clearly no long term thinking in storylines.
The company tells its viewers that essentially only the Main Event matters.
Terrible storylines that often times are not cohesive from one week to the next.

Vince has essentially turned the WWE into WCW.

[Milkyway!]

If you really want to know the truth why the ratings are droping, I could give you a list of reasons why.

So you are in the WWE right now? And in the heads of millions of people? Oh you must be the green martian from the Justice leauge. Right?? Glad to see you talking for EVERYONE on the face of this planet.

1) The whole PG thing is not working for us grown men.

Ahh yes, this must be it. You grown men, hating those childish games. Even though 90% of you loved Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage. Even though they are doing the exact same thing today, as they were back then.

It makes us feel like we are watching cartoons.

I don't know what era you grew up in. But my dad/a lot of the 40 year old men around here. LOVE cartoons. Like bugs bunny, Daffy duck. They would still watch them today. I've spent hours watching Boomerang with my father.
In the past year. Whats wrong with cartoons?


As some one also pointed out, what parents you know let their kids on a school night stay up and watch WWE?.

Uh the average bedtime for most kidds around 10+ is 11. They aren't targeting 6 year olds. Just children in general. Its really simple as to what they are doing. a.) Get them hooked like they are on cocain B.) Keep them hooked

2) Vince is doing the shows to his liking and not the fans.

SO YOU ARE IN THE WWE!

Why wouldn't he push people with real talent or atleast give them a test run and see how they do.

*yawn* You want them to skyrocket every star they have. You know that guy? The Rock. When he left, it was because he had allready done everything there is to do, and he sure wasn't going to start putting people over. So he left. Vince learned from that mistake now hes making people wait. Give them time to develop, even if they are hugely over. Dont overpush them, becuase sooner or later, the superstar will push back. Make someone prove their loyalty to the company, before they get a promotion.

3) We the fans

So wait, are you in the wwe? Or are you the green martian. Or are you both!

are tired of seeing the same thing week after week and the same people in the main event

OH! I see you're the spokesman of the fans, for the WWE! The fans aren't seeing the same thing week in and week out sir. Read the rock above, as to what they are doing when it comes to the main event. You can't just skyrocket stars these days.

and the same people chasing the title.

Yup! They are going to ship every main even star they have, just for a few new faces. The Rock/Austin/HBK/Undertaker/Hart held the main event scene for nearly a decade. Hogan held the TITLE itself for 4 years.

Give us a breath of fresh air for once. Let's see some one like Kennedy with the strap or MVP or Shelton.

Kennedy has to learn to wrestle, without hurting himself, or his oponet first. Mic skills aren't the only thing that cut it in the wrestling world

Mvp is getting pushed.

Shelton is horrible. Hes bland, has 1-2 good spots in the ring each match. Mic skills are bad. Hes a born midcarder, and will/should stay that way.

People with real talent.

Define, talent. Evan bourne has talent, he should be in the Main event by your laws. Nyeh I'd say read above, but you've allready read it twice, if you need to read it a third time then god help us all.

Some poeple say some of them don't have mic skills,

They dont.


I just say neither did Ultimate Warrior and he also had no wrestling skills and he got push to the moon and beyond and still did Vince dirty.

Or maybe, just MAYBE! The ultimate warrior had charisma, and the it factor, that can't be learned. He was a botchfest and a half, I agree. He was horrible, I agree. But it doesn't mean he was hugely over. He was the only man during that time period, worthy to take the belt off of Hogan. If you disagree, then please state who was.

[Miss DFW]

I don't see why Vince put Superstars on thur nites against TNA, Hell it should be on Sat mornings since its PG now..
Hell when I was growing up I was watching WCCW at 11am every sat morn..and it wasn't as tame as WWE is now.

[Loveless]

I think the low ratings are down to a number of things but mainly, I would say, they are due to RAW and Smackdown being used as nothing but promo time for the PPVs. Can we not have a little variation please? I could basically write a generic prediction of both main shows for the next month and what happens won't be far off.
I actually managed to catch Superstars last week and quite liked it. It offered matches that you won't see on the main shows, because they're nothing to do with the PPV buildup. I liked that I got to see a match between Ted and Carlito and Bourne Vs Burchill, instead of shit promos and matches I've seen a hundred times already. Not everything needs to be about the fucking PPV. Can we not just have some wrestling please?

[Esteban Ochocinco]

The problem with My Network TV, it's a local channel, and the Local Channel will more then likely show local sports programs, (I.E. Baseball this time of year) over Smackdown. I believe that's a big problem right now that some of the major markets have Baseball running on the local MyNetwork affiliate, which ends up pushing Smackdown to some god awful timeslot that nobody watches.

Plus, the Nielsen ratings system is an antiquitated piece of crap. Nobody watches television the way they used to. The Nielsen ratings don't take into account people that DVR shows. Smackdown is on Friday Nights, the absolute worst night of the week to have anything on. That young male demo everyone is so fond of, chances are, they're not sitting in on a Friday Night watching Smackdown. They are doing what I'm doing, and tha'ts DVR'ing it, and watching it sometime over the weekend, or Monday Afternoon. I have better things to do, for the most part, then to sit in and watch wrestling on Friday.

And yes, over exposure is a huge problem. Simply put, there is too much wrestling, especially from the WWE. When you take into account, Raw, ECW, Smackdown and Superstars, that's 6 hours of new programming right there. Myself, I like a little variety, so add in 2 hours for Impact, and 1 hour for ROH on HDNet, and that's 9 hours, on a non pay per view week, dedicated to new wrestling programming. I like wrestling, but I'm not dedicating every free moment of my televsion watching life, which is limited to begin with, to watching wrestling.

I've said it about the WWE for the longest time, the WWE is simply bland. It has nothing to do with the ratings, and everything to do with everyone being a mirror image of the guy they are working with. Therer is no variety in the WWE. The lightweight guys wrestle the same match as the heavyweights. My god, I got to see some cruiserweight style wrestling on Raw last week with Kendrick and kingston, and I about shit myself. It was something fresh, and something the WWE has lacked in.

Nobody wants to watch 6 hours a week of the same damn thing, and that's all the WWE offers us. If you watch Smackdown, chances are, you'll see the same damn thing on Raw. The creative teams are lazy and uncreative, the wrestlers are extremely strangled and suffocated with the type of matches they can wrestle, and for the most part, the stories are just bland. The WWE simply needs a shakedown and a restructuring of their programming from the bottom up. Smackdown looks promising at this point, but can they keep it up.

[olando76]

The problem with all of you is that you care too much about the state of wrestling. Look all the WWE programing is God awful terrible there is no redeeming quality on any of there shows. For the most part I've been reading that TNA is terrible, what is so bad about TNA? Are you that brainwashed by WWE that you don't know any more what good wrestling is? Go out and support your local wrestling fed's.

[Nev]

The low ratings are because, imo, the element of suprise. The outcome and finish of the twists and storylines are poor and doesn't leave you watching for more, it just leaves you hoping that the WWE does what you want. WWE needs to listen to its fans more. Just because we knew Christian was responsible for Jeff Hardy's accidents, doesn't mean we don't want it to happen.

Anyway it's 2009. We're not at the point in 2002 where the WWE was desperately looking for top faces. WWE is comfortable with its current superstars. It's only a matter of time when these guys are put in the limelight.

[Lord Sidious]

Plus, the Nielsen ratings system is an antiquitated piece of crap. Nobody watches television the way they used to. The Nielsen ratings don't take into account people that DVR shows. Smackdown is on Friday Nights, the absolute worst night of the week to have anything on. That young male demo everyone is so fond of, chances are, they're not sitting in on a Friday Night watching Smackdown. They are doing what I'm doing, and tha'ts DVR'ing it, and watching it sometime over the weekend, or Monday Afternoon. I have better things to do, for the most part, then to sit in and watch wrestling on Friday.

Yes, Yes, and Yes. Since this show is essentially their #2 show, why is Vince so incapable to negotiate another time slot on another night?

Clearly, this show needs to be back on Thursday nights.

Smackdown should be the one on Thursdays, and Superstars should be on Fridays. However, obviously the problem is that WGN doesn't have the amount of viewers that MyNetwork has.

Vince needs to get himself a new network with a new night for that show.

However, as pointed out, clearly this isn't the only problem.


And yes, over exposure is a huge problem. Simply put, there is too much wrestling, especially from the WWE. When you take into account, Raw, ECW, Smackdown and Superstars, that's 6 hours of new programming right there. Myself, I like a little variety, so add in 2 hours for Impact, and 1 hour for ROH on HDNet, and that's 9 hours, on a non pay per view week, dedicated to new wrestling programming. I like wrestling, but I'm not dedicating every free moment of my televsion watching life, which is limited to begin with, to watching wrestling.

Key word: Variety.

Vince never bothered replacing that variety when he killed ECW and WCW. That is the single biggest problem in his company, in my opinion. He killed his competition, all of which offered product alternatives to his WWE, yet he never replaced those product alternatives, and instead only offers one single product.

Today's fans of today's PG Product are extremely ignorant of all the other fans that crave something else, besides this.


I've said it about the WWE for the longest time, the WWE is simply bland.

Absolutely, 100% agree.

Nobody wants to watch 6 hours a week of the same damn thing, and that's all the WWE offers us. If you watch Smackdown, chances are, you'll see the same damn thing on Raw. The creative teams are lazy and uncreative, the wrestlers are extremely strangled and suffocated with the type of matches they can wrestle, and for the most part, the stories are just bland. The WWE simply needs a shakedown and a restructuring of their programming from the bottom up. Smackdown looks promising at this point, but can they keep it up.

Vince must offer product alternatives. He is killing the wrestling business by not doing so.

When wrestling entered the Boom Period during the Monday Night Wars, it was because there was competition, who offered product alternatives to WWE programming. And I'm sorry, but offering Smackdown as an alternative to Raw, is not good enough. Just because the two shows feature different talents, that is not enough anymore.

You have to alter the format and concept of the show. That is what people are looking for, and the WWE is not giving them.

Excellent post!

[colalella2891]

I personally want wrestling every night.

I completely disagree. I miss how it was before with only Raw and SD. It was just enough wrestling per week, but not too much. Plus, ECW is just bad. So, yes I think overexposure could be a possibility for low ratings because the fans are getting sick of it all. And, as all of you probably already know, there are rumors of another show on Wed night, which I think is completely ridiculous. Change it back to 2 days a week!!!

[LokiCobain]

I completely disagree. I miss how it was before with only Raw and SD. It was just enough wrestling per week, but not too much. Plus, ECW is just bad. So, yes I think overexposure could be a possibility for low ratings because the fans are getting sick of it all. And, as all of you probably already know, there are rumors of another show on Wed night, which I think is completely ridiculous. Change it back to 2 days a week!!!

What makes ECW so bad? The people who actually turn it on weekly say it's the best actual wrestling of the three WWE shows, so I'm going to assume you don't watch it, or you're still whining because it's not the real ECW so it sucks. If Raw and SD had matches like ECW did, their ratings could go up, because instead of Tyson Kidd vs Evan Bourne, you could have two people that would draw viewers.

The Superstars show was probably designed to give everyone wet dreaming over a unification of brands something to watch, and now that's even getting bashed. Do people fear and hate change so much that they refuse to even give something a chance? If you're a fan of wrestling, you shouldn't get tired of it, especially when they're adding one hour shows and not two. I personally watch the 3 WWE shows, Impact, and AWA Wrestling on ESPN Classic every week. I don't get Superstars, but if I did, then I'd probably watch that too.

Ratings are irrelevant to the viewer. The product is predictable and stale. The internet community knows the outcome to tapings before the show, so why would they watch? There are leaks all the time. These have more to do with ratings dropping than anything, but if the 4 matches they did have in 2 hours were actually somewhat decent, people who know the outcomes would watch anyway.