The Ratings Are In For TNA's Debut On Destination America

[Jack-Hammer]

TNA's Impact Wrestling debuted at it's new home with a 0.46 Nielsen rating and an audience of 263,000. Now while that seems extremely dismal, you have to remember that Destination America is only available in about 50% of American households. Also, it was still the most watched show on Destination America this week, beating out a show called "Killing Bigfoot", which drew 250,000 viewers.

So while I doubt TNA will be send out press releases touting their success, it's a good number considering that they're not exactly on a widely available, powerhouse cable network.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

And the second plus is that the instant replay of the episode drew 105k so (overall) the episode drew 368k. Potentially being the no1 show on the network in it's first week must be taken as a positive.

 

[Papa Pillman]

I was really expecting(optimistically) to see something in the 0.6(350,000ish) viewer range for the debut, but this still isn't very bad. Being the top show on the Network the first week out justifies Destination America's investment in the brand.

If they can produce some strong shows and combine it with the continued strong promotion that Discovery has been providing, plus the move to Friday night where a built-in wrestling audience already exists and will be losing that outlet, I expect this number has room for a lot of growth over the next couple of months.

Also Dixie stressed on the JR podcast that Destination America was really far more concerned about tracking the "plus-3" number more than the first run number, which was the main reason for them selling TNA on a Friday night slot.

I hope people understand the logistics behind this number before coming in here and posting that "LOL 263,000, TNA sucks haha" Bullshit. But of course those types of responses are likely inevitable.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I was expecting this, honestly. I figured they'd see at least a 50% loss in audience just based on the fact that DA isn't carried on the same standard cable package that Spike was by the vast majority of cable providers.

It's going to be a slow go... or slow grow of things going forward. They're going to have to put on a consistently good product to entice more people to pick that package up.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

Is there any way to watch it online from Canada? Decent rating given the circumstances

 

[rmp0012002]

Not a bad number as it's still a work in progress but I definitely think they need more promotion. I'll watch the Alaska shows they have but I have never seen any commercials advertising Impact on them.

 

[Messiah]

Is there any way to watch it online from Canada? Decent rating given the circumstances

Just Google 'watch WWE online' and at least 4 sites will come up where you can watch WWE, TNA, ROH and some indy shit.

 

[Mr.Maikeru_Sawyer]

Not a bad number as it's still a work in progress but I definitely think they need more promotion. I'll watch the Alaska shows they have but I have never seen any commercials advertising Impact on them.

you must not actually watch the channel much then, or any of Discovery's channels. my dad enjoys shows on all the Discovery network channels and leading up to Wednesday's debut I had witnessed at least 4 commercials AN HOUR promoting the launch and subsequent move to Fridays
and remember
if 800 thousand(average) people watched TNA on Spike and they got just under 400 tousand(two airings) on a channel that reaches half as many people I would call that a scratch for ratings.

 

[John McCass]

Its a good start on a new channel and slowly the ratings will increase. TNA put on a great show 1st week on Destination America. TNA will keep it up.

 

[BaconBits]

I have Destination America and I wanted to give TNA another shot because it's supposedly going to have a different feel, but something came up and I couldn't watch. I was hoping it was On Demand, but nope. I guess I'll try next week.

 

[stingray11214]

I was really expecting(optimistically) to see something in the 0.6(350,000ish) viewer range for the debut, but this still isn't very bad. Being the top show on the Network the first week out justifies Destination America's investment in the brand.

If they can produce some strong shows and combine it with the continued strong promotion that Discovery has been providing, plus the move to Friday night where a built-in wrestling audience already exists and will be losing that outlet, I expect this number has room for a lot of growth over the next couple of months.

Also Dixie stressed on the JR podcast that Destination America was really far more concerned about tracking the "plus-3" number more than the first run number, which was the main reason for them selling TNA on a Friday night slot.

I hope people understand the logistics behind this number before coming in here and posting that "LOL 263,000, TNA sucks haha" Bullshit. But of course those types of responses are likely inevitable.

Though those numbers are impressive, compared to the numbers Pro Wrestling Syndicate got at 4:30 AM on a Sunday, with far less promotion, and totally amateurish production, on a UHF station that is difficult to get outside of Long Island without cable, AND competing with WK9 (If you stayed up that late in the NYC Metro area), you should be able to understand why people might say that.

That said, Destination America is in this for the long haul. The numbers can only go up. And, they will once people find their way. In an era where people are cutting the cable cord, DA needs to have some great programming to keep people coming back. Impact Wrestling is a great building block.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I'm listening to Figure Four Daily discuss the number and what it means and some good points are being made that I think some people need to take into consideration here.

For one, that number is off the back of heavy promotion, something Impact has virtually never had before due to Spike's unwillingness to promote it. TNA themselves did their best to promote it too, with many of its wrestlers doing podcast appearances, Dixie on The Ross Report, etc. They also ran a marathon on the channel to entice people into watching before the debut show. These are all good promotional tactics, not to mention the show was on only an hour delay which means spoilers - while there - weren't a big issue.

For them to do the rating on a Wednesday, live, isn't the best. But, they're not going to be on Wednesday's are they? They're going to be on Fridays. I'm sure its already been discussed in other threads related to this, but the Friday evening timeslot in infamous for the fact that shows rarely do well in it. That's not encouraging.

Bryan Alvarez rang Discovery's headquarters and spoke to a Destination America representative. That person told Bryan that Impact will not be available on any online streaming service in the near future, and, that if he wanted to learn more he should seek out his local library (Bryan's reaction to the local library bit is hilarious.)

Impact is on Destination America to benefit Destination America. They want it there to bring in more viewers to their station, they don't want people going online to watch the show. So if you don't have the channel, you're going to have to watch it illegally which of course doesn't benefit TNA at all.

 

[Papa Pillman]

But, they're not going to be on Wednesday's are they? They're going to be on Fridays. I'm sure its already been discussed in other threads related to this, but the Friday evening timeslot in infamous for the fact that shows rarely do well in it. That's not encouraging.

In the dinosaur age of the cable environment this was probably true. In 2015 people who are still naive enough to use this "Friday is a death slot" argument are thousands of levels of purely ignorant(there may be some minute level of truth still there for a high cost scripted drama or sitcom that runs on a national over-air station like CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC, etc. but in this case it is a DUMB assumption).

The important facts are two-fold...

First Destination America wanted Impact in the Friday spot and had to convince TNA is was the right thing to do. Why? Because the only number that they care at all about is the Plus-3. Plus three is how many viewers a show gets over the time of the three days(72 hours) during and then post airing, via DVR or other comparable measurable means. With a Friday night slot, TNA's plus-3 extends until late Monday evening, giving the audience the entire weekend to watch the show. Discovery's research shows plus-3's that include more weekend time have a higher watch rate. Therefore Friday night first run programming is the glory spot for a cable station like DestAm to stick a show it expects to pull numbers, they want the most eyes possible on Impact, and they think that a Friday spot is the best way to achieve measuring that due to a full weekend contributing to plus-3 tracking.

And second, the American cable wrestling viewer is conditioned to wrestling airing on Friday night. SmackDown pulls over 2 million viewers weekly. That is millions of people who have devoted time out of their Friday on a week-to-week basis to watch wrestling ritualistically for the last several years. With that outlet for wrestling being removed from Friday night, DestAm is of the belief that(probably taking into consideration how bad the SmackDown product is) a chunk of that viewer base may stick with watching wrestling on Friday and choose to adopt Impact as their programming choice, as opposed to adjusting their TV watching schedule and following SmackDown to Thursday(which presents more stiff competition from the major over-air stations as well as sports programming that may preclude people from caring about watching a WWE program that night of the week).

A switch to Friday wasn't done to insert Impact into a "death spot", it was done quite the contrary with DestAm believing it will be the strongest performing time slot they could offer at any point in the week(again taking into account plus-3), and they want the show that they hope to build their network around to be filling that glory position.

 

[ECPirate37]

I was at the shows this week, and had a blast at all of them. As far as ratings go, I was hoping for more, but I'm happy that it is the top rated show on the channel. Living here in NYC, I wish I had seen subway advertisements for it. Almost every major show (Whether new or returning) does subway ads. Millions of people a day see those. Yet, not a single one for this.

The PWS number is very impressive, but that was just for NYC where they have a following. If you put that show on nationally, I'm not sure it would draw. I'm a huge believer in the fact that there needs to be more televised wrestling. I hope TNA sticks around because I love the product. The writing can be terrible, and sometimes the booking, but the actual matches are great.

I do hope they continue to promote TNA. If Spike had promoted TNA this way, I think they could have grown, but being the top rated show on their new network will hopefully continue the promoting which will hopefully grow the product.

 

[bioshock]

What I would like to know, is the Spike ratings for the show that replaced TNA, how well is that replacement doing up against TNA?

But those ratings aren't bad. It is after all a premium channel so to speak, on Dish you need its everything package to get the channel. (package just under all the movie channels).

 

[Papa Pillman]

I actually just looked up some interviews I hadn't read yet, looking for support on my discussion of "Plus-3's" and how they relate to the strategy of switching nights for Impact Wrestling, and found this quote from Dixie herself in a recent article from Sporting News discussing nearly verbatim the thinking of DestAm that I was alluding to in my earlier post on the matter:

“I think I’ll tell you in a few months if I like being on Friday nights. They presented us with a lot of research and felt very strongly about Friday nights being a potential for them. +3’s is how people look at ratings nowadays, it’s not overnight ratings. With your +3 numbers, you have a much bigger chance for your +3 number over a weekend versus only, like if we were staying on Wednesday, that would be Thursday, Friday and you would have part of Saturday. It’s just an overall strategy. They feel really strongly about it. Wrestling has been successful on Friday nights and is no longer there and so we’ll see how we’ll do.”

 

[rmp0012002]

you must not actually watch the channel much then, or any of Discovery's channels. my dad enjoys shows on all the Discovery network channels and leading up to Wednesday's debut I had witnessed at least 4 commercials AN HOUR promoting the launch and subsequent move to Fridays
and remember
if 800 thousand(average) people watched TNA on Spike and they got just under 400 tousand(two airings) on a channel that reaches half as many people I would call that a scratch for ratings.

I don't watch religiously but I've never come across one commercial and being a wrestling fan it would stand out. Maybe they only run them on certain shows. Regardless, I think they need marketing outside of the diehard crowd and haters looking for a train wreck. I want them to succeed and be another promotion in the national discussion but I don't really know how you do that. Hopefully they start to become a moneymaker and then they can have a little more pull to get on a larger network.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

And second, the American cable wrestling viewer is conditioned to wrestling airing on Friday night. SmackDown pulls over 2 million viewers weekly. That is millions of people who have devoted time out of their Friday on a week-to-week basis to watch wrestling ritualistically for the last several years. With that outlet for wrestling being removed from Friday night, DestAm is of the belief that(probably taking into consideration how bad the SmackDown product is) a chunk of that viewer base may stick with watching wrestling on Friday and choose to adopt Impact as their programming choice, as opposed to adjusting their TV watching schedule and following SmackDown to Thursday(which presents more stiff competition from the major over-air stations as well as sports programming that may preclude people from caring about watching a WWE program that night of the week).

This isn't WWE. We're not talking about WWE. WWE could stick a two hour show on a crappy channel like ION and draw a million or so viewers every week. That's not an issue.

This is TNA, and TNA is nowhere near as strong as WWE. TNA's fanbase is not as built or as strong or as dedicated as the WWE fanbase. These are all things everyone with two brain cells to run together knows.

Friday's not the death slot, nobody said that, but it's not a good slot. And if you think that it will benefit them because people are "conditioned to watch wrestling on Friday nights" and then bring up WWE, the leader of the indusrty by a country mile and a half, you're way off target with your train of thought dude. TNA's on a station with doesn't have that good of viewership to begin with, that not a lot of people have or are willing to purchase, yes they are being promoted better but only on the Discovery channels it seems who I doubt is big for wrestling fans. But this is what people will all soon realizing that I've been saying for awhile - TNA's not supposed to be reaching its old targets, it has new, much smaller targets, which is why this rating isn't bad but it's not the most promising start they could have had.

 

[Papa Pillman]

This isn't WWE. We're not talking about WWE. WWE could stick a two hour show on a crappy channel like ION and draw a million or so viewers every week. That's not an issue.

This is TNA, and TNA is nowhere near as strong as WWE. TNA's fanbase is not as built or as strong or as dedicated as the WWE fanbase. These are all things everyone with two brain cells to run together knows.

Friday's not the death slot, nobody said that, but it's not a good slot. And if you think that it will benefit them because people are "conditioned to watch wrestling on Friday nights" and then bring up WWE, the leader of the indusrty by a country mile and a half, you're way off target with your train of thought dude. TNA's on a station with doesn't have that good of viewership to begin with, that not a lot of people have or are willing to purchase, yes they are being promoted better but only on the Discovery channels it seems who I doubt is big for wrestling fans. But this is what people will all soon realizing that I've been saying for awhile - TNA's not supposed to be reaching its old targets, it has new, much smaller targets, which is why this rating isn't bad but it's not the most promising start they could have had.

I don't represent Destination America. I'm not an executive, intern, or custodian in the office building and this decision wasn't made by me and its logic didn't come from my mind. I gave no opinion of my own on whether TNA was capable of picking up a portion of the SmackDown viewer base. I simply stated what Destination America as a network cited to TNA as the motivations for inserting them into the Friday spot, and the newly created lack of a major national wrestling program on a night that has produced quantifiable wrestling viewership was one of those motivations.

 

[MrHashasheen]

- We noted earlier that TNA officials were upset about the 263,000 viewership number being reported for their Impact Wrestling debut on Destination America this past Wednesday night.

"TV By The Numbers reports that Impact on Wednesday drew a 0.1 adults 18-49 rating with 359,000 viewers. Showbuzz TV Ratings is also reporting 359,000.

If you add in the 105,000 viewers for the replay, assuming that number is correct, Impact would have totaled 464,000 viewers on Wednesday night."

Dunno, food for thought for everyone I guess. Not as bad a drop as expected, I suppose.

 

[Rayne]

If you add in the 105,000 viewers for the replay, assuming that number is correct, Impact would have totaled 464,000 viewers on Wednesday night.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here we are, once again, with TNA's television direction freshly under new management, and we're seeing the same ridiculous spin with numbers that we did in the weeks after Eric Bischoff took over.

Yes, while it is technically true that the net sum of viewers (assuming there are zero duplicate watchers, which is unlikely) could be 464,000, that's not a relevant number when it comes to establishing a rating. People are calling this a .4 based on folding the numbers from two different shows together, which, no, you don't get to do that. Advertisers, the people who spend money based on ratings, don't care how many people in total watched TNA throughout the week; they want to know how many viewers they can depend on for the early block, and how many for the late block. They aren't advertising on a 0.4 program; they're advertising on a 0.25 and an 0.12.

All that bitching about ratings numbers spin aside, it's way too early to conclusively say anything, positive or negative, about TNA's performance on Destination America so far, and the people that are are just blowing smoke up their asses. It's not just early in the sense that we have only one item to try to establish a trend yet, the Live+3 numbers aren't even out for the program yet. It's like making a statement on what career someone will focus on in the hour after they pop out of the womb.

It seems we'll have to wait a few more days to find out what the 'real' Wednesday Impact rating is, and even after we do, that number won't matter until we have other data points to compare it to.