Analyzing the curious case of TNA's ratings decline

[16mikeytot]

As we all know tna got it's highest rating on the january 4th live edition. But since then all the ratings have done is gone down. Now this lead me to believe that the only reason they got a 1.5 was due to all the hype surrounding hogans debut and the constant surprises of highly profiled wrestlers(flair,hardy,hall,pac,etc.). But now I look at the front page and it says this weeks impact gained it's highest amount of viewers when angelina love and tara took on the beautiful people, and the show had it's lowest amount of viewers during the hogan comes out to help angle segment. Is it because people are sick of hogan already? Or is it because some guys just tune in to see the beautiful people's entrance? Now I never watch a full episode of impact just parts but I make sure I see the beautiful people's entrance. What do you guys think because normally in professional wrestling I believe the second hour is supposed to gain more viewers not lose them.

 

[Dave]

I think that people are just getting away from the initial high that Hogan brought into the company. You see, when he joined up with TNA, we all knew that a lot of changes were going to come with him and not all of them were going to bad. I, for one, tuned in to see what Hogan and TNA were going to do for each other. I don't regret that decision and I still watch TNA now. I had never watched the show for any extended period of time before that and now I am a fan of the production. However, what I think has happened here is that people come to expect a lot of things from a company like TNA now. They expect to be wowed every episode and they now expect to be shocked by a major development that never really comes.

To be perfectly frank, people are just becoming bored with it. Not bored because it is bad. Bored because it is now settling into what it should be and trying to stabilize after a heavy period of activity. Some people generally aren't fans of that and I assume that is what is happening here. Hogan seems to be a novelty and I think that although he has done well for TNA (I think), people are becoming tired of seeing something that they have seen multiple times before.

 

[The Marauder]

You know,16mikeytot I've been curious of that myself. I'm not judgemental on TNA's ratings,even though their rating's are lower than WWE's. I mean 1.5 to a 1.2 within the last 5 weeks. Wow. I hope for TNA's sake they do not discourage. One would assume this is the reason why the move to Monday night's will benefit them better. Plus the large casualty of going live every other Monday.

I don't really think people are sick of Hogan and like "the Beautiful People" more. (Which in fact are boner hot.) It may be because people were just tuning out. Very simple explanation.

When March 8 comes about, TNA may get a decent viewership.


Marauder

 

[LongHessa]

This comes down to two simple things. Hogan can't sustain an audience like he could 15 years ago, and secondly, that old fart is not only back, he's doing exactly what he DID 15 years ago. There's one huge differnce between Bret's comback and Hogan's...like it or not, Bret's is something new...He's been away forever. Hogan is always up to something, whether it be "rasslin" or making ridiculous headlines. I think under Hogan's guidence IMPACT's ratings will continue to draw in the low 1.0's.These storylines with the Nasty Boys and "The Band" are a nice throwback for the viewer at first, but very quickly you realize the former "Bad Guy" is now a 320 pound alcoholic who under no circumstances would one ever find threatening...couple that with the fact that the rest of TNA's 2 hour show is littered by aging tired personalites and a slew of mid-card WWE talent that Vince sweaped under the rug....When TNA's ship sinks you know who's gonna get the lifeboat??? Hogan and "His Band" will float away till 2019 when they suddenly return to resurrect WCW and "Bring the band back brothaa". While Dixie, Jarrett, and every single jobber in the back will go down faster than the Titanic. So what's ya gonna do, when Hogan and Flair square off at 62.

 

[Maikeru_1979]

i DO NOT think that the ratings drop since the January 4th Impact has anything to do with who is on the show, who's booking the show, who is or isn't getting pushed.

THE MAIN problem with TNA Impact right now is just one thing...It is taped 2 to 3 weeks in advance. and dont tell me that no one looks at the spoilers. that one little thing is the only reason I BELIEVE that the ratings have droped back to the pre-Hogan numbers.

I mean dam look at last weeks episode of Impact...it was taped almost a month before it even aired on tv. Hell Eric Young lost his Global title on the tour of europe/UK(witch ever one it was) but we had to sit through two weeks of him still being the Global champion on TV because of the taping.

I personally believe that after the march 8 episode when the start the old Raw taping schedule that the rating will go back up to at least the 1.5 it pulled on the live show.


peace out

 

[Tiger Chaos Theory]

i DO NOT think that the ratings drop since the January 4th Impact has anything to do with who is on the show, who's booking the show, who is or isn't getting pushed.

THE MAIN problem with TNA Impact right now is just one thing...It is taped 2 to 3 weeks in advance. and dont tell me that no one looks at the spoilers. that one little thing is the only reason I BELIEVE that the ratings have droped back to the pre-Hogan numbers.

I mean dam look at last weeks episode of Impact...it was taped almost a month before it even aired on tv. Hell Eric Young lost his Global title on the tour of europe/UK(witch ever one it was) but we had to sit through two weeks of him still being the Global champion on TV because of the taping.

I personally believe that after the march 8 episode when the start the old Raw taping schedule that the rating will go back up to at least the 1.5 it pulled on the live show.


peace out

I have to agree with this logic.

People read spoilers and if they like what they read, they MAY tune in to watch the segment of the show they read and thought would be good. Now take away that option and people have to choose to either watch or read about it in live coverage,which really if you're doing, why the hell just not watch it, or after the show. So that's a slight bump in ratings for sure.

Now onto the issue of which segments gets the ratings. You could attribute this to the spoiler issue too. People read what they like and then watch it. I don't think people are getting tired of hogan and the band storyline just yet (even though people complain about bad storylines but never really allow a story to advance and give fans the payoff) since the band has only been on once a week for about 2-8 minutes.

Even if TBP are "boner hawt". Which they are. A lot.

 

[JJYanks121]

If you want to truly examine the ratings, let's do so in a fair manner. Before 1/4, TNA had a sustained average in 2009 of about 1.0. I do not have the exact numbers, but I followed the ratings weekly and they had a peak of about 1.2 and a low of 0.9 or so with most shows doing a 1.0. TNA promoted the shit out of Hogan's first appearance and touted the show as HUGE. The show was to be a 3 hour spectacular with the final 2 hours going head to head with Monday Night Raw. The first hour did a TNA record high 1.7, which is evidence that there was interest by people willing to "see what the fuss is about". However, some of those people were and are regular WWE viewers. In that hour, it was TNA's job to entice people to truly give it a shot, but to their dismay, the second hour did a 1.4 and the third hour did a 1.2. This means that viewership dropped off as time went on. This could be due to viewers switching over to WWE or the program not holding the viewers interest, but either way, the combined 3 hour average of a 1.5 was reason for optimism in the TNA camp.

A deeper look at those ratings would show that the maximum audience TNA had reached was 1.7. Therefore, the following 2 week average of a 1.4 was fantastic. This means that out of the .7 rating that "tried it out" which is over the 1.0 average of the past year, more than half decided to give the product more of a chance. For all intents and purposes, we are assuming the 1.0 is the "core TNA audience" who will watch TNA no matter what. After those couple of weeks or mediocre at best shows, those fans "trying it out" began to see that the product might not be what they were expecting or certainly not enticing enough to watch it every week. Thus, since the first couple of 1.4's, the show has settled into the 1.15-1.2 range. A simple explanation is that about half the tasters that stayed around since the 1/4 episode have stayed around and become new viewers. The other half gave it a shot and are unsatisfied at this time and aren't willing to tune in every week.

A number or reasons can be cited to blame the drop, but I think the simplest explanation is dissatisfaction with the product. The new viewers don't have history with the product, don't have loyalty to it, may or may not be WWE fans, and quite simply, made a choice to try it out and made a choice that the current product isnt' something they are interested in. TNA has gained .2 though on the whole, so it's not all for naught. As I see it, they and their fans perhaps were hoping for too much too fast. This increase is actually quite good given the timing and time since the big show. You don't become a competitor overnight. Part of doing that will be marketing and advertising and growing the product with travel and such. The other half will be to create stars and start making compelling television. It is only my opinion that at this time, the show they are putting on doesn't scream "ratings grabber" to me. However, it is a new regime with a lot of new stars so I'm willing to revisit my thoughts in about a year. Until then, if TNA can put together a little growth and get to a steady 1.5 opposite Raw, that would be quite solid.

 

[CaptainZaltan]

Actually, the ratings for the Knockout's have been among the highest for Impact for months now. Makes you wonder why TNA didn't go through with an all Knockouts show in the current Epics timeslot, hey? Also, why they were willing to let Raisha walk away and nearly lost Kong.

Anyways, TNA is still an inconsistent show, largely hit and miss. If you look at any of the TNA topics on this forum, just as many people are pissed off and alienated by the new product as there are people who are excited and love the companies new direction. How the company is supposed to build and sustain any momentum when the fans are at each others throats is beyond me. But more importantly, the companies direction isn't really apparent right now. I still think they are largely in an experimental phase, mixing up on-air personalities and stories and adding a pinch of 'classic' wrestling and a touch of 'new' wrestling at random intervals to see what works. Nonetheless, the end result (for me at least) is that my attitude towards Impact keeps changing. Some weeks I really enjoy it, and some weeks I swear I won't waste my time tuning in again.

Unfortunately, while inconsistency is understandable at this phase in the game, it's not beneficial. Prior to the Jan 4th show, the consensus among most fans was that TNA would have a limited amount of time to capitalize on the popularity of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff and the increased exposure they would bring in order to catch the interest of a new wrestling fan base. Obviously, interest has started to wane since that initial spike.

I'm not going to pretend that I know why that is with certainty, but I will tell you how I feel as a fan. There are some things I like about TNA right now and some that I don't, and the inconsistency problem comes into play because I'm really not sure how much of each I'll be seeing when I tune in.
Hogan and his regulars do nothing for me, and never have. Some new roster additions like Anderson have worked out brilliantly, but other young talent who are undeniably over (Beer Money, MCMG) are noticeably absent in favor of guys like Orlando Jordan who have yet to prove themselves. The writing has improved greatly, yet I don't care for many of the individuals involved in the plots (ie: the 'band' story is being handled well, although I still despise Hogan, Nash and Pac). PPV's are still a waste of money (as I discovered the hard way this past Sunday). And there is a sense that the new management is deliberatley attempting to alienate some of the older fans by blatantly fulfilling their worst TNA-related fears (taking away air-time from TNA originals and giving it to Hogan's friends).

The end result is that I have very mixed feelings towards Impact, and as a result it's just not 'must-see tv' for me at this point. Many here won't agree with my particular reasoning or preferences, but I believe we can all acknowledge that TNA's fans are currently divided, both in how they feel about the company and externally against each other. A lot of this I feel is attributable to how quickly and how drastically changes were implemented, the uncertainty about the direction of the company, and the inconsistency of the shows content (ie: replacing Borash with Bubba only to change their minds later. Face->Heel->Face turning Jarrett. Countless other examples of inconsistency). The end result is that for all the progress TNA is making with attracting a new audience, they aren't yet creating a stable enough show to sustain their interest, and they are simoultanenously alienating much of the original fan base. This isn't intended as a 'doom and gloom' post, as TNA is still experimenting as I said earlier and may very well turn this around. This is just what I feel is happening currently with the product and why the ratings are waning.

 

[Upgrayedd]

But they really haven't gone down. They've stayed around that 1.3/1.4 rating which is up for them actually.

People say they're going live at the wrong time since it's the hype to WrestleMania. I don't think that really matters anymore. The ratings for the WWE pretty much stay the same now even around WrestleMania. TNA has already proven they can get almost half the rating that RAW gets which is very good considering many people were saying they wouldn't even get a 1.0 on January 4th. The WWE is stale, TNA picked the perfect time to compete with them.

 

[Chrome]

I read somewhere that they had a record breaking Thursday night record a few weeks ago. I wouldn't say that Hogan is burying TNA, if anything ratings have gotten better.. but being pre-taped is not helping it. But he has stated in an recent interview that he and eric are following each show minute by minute to see who gets the highest ratings and go from there. I guess this is why Pope won the most recent PPV.

Moving it to Monday and live might prove more fruitful.

I don't agree with you tot, sorry but TNA has not gotten this much exposure ever.. I am sure there merchindise sales are up and are more main stream now then what they were a year ago. ratings only tell half the tale.. in short TNA NEEDED this kind of push.

 

[XgringolocoX]

Plain n simple. The bump in ratings was just cause of the hype. I feel that many were disappointed to see that hogan brought his cronies with him, ie: Nasty boys, Hall, Waltman. Whether or not these guys have something to contribute to TNA is irrelavent. This made a statement. A bad statement. That statement is "SAME OLD SHIT!!!" During these following weeks I think there was a bit higher rating due to folks wanting to see if Hogan has brought anything to the table. He really hasn't brought much for the casual viewer just yet. If TNA doesn't deliver by or starting with the 3/8 show then they're dead in the water.

 

[16mikeytot]

I read somewhere that they had a record breaking Thursday night record a few weeks ago. I wouldn't say that Hogan is burrying TNA if anything ratings have gotten better.. but being pre-taped is not helping it. But he has stated in an recent interview that he and eric are following each show minute by minute to see who gets the highest ratings and go from there. I guess this is why Pope won the most recent PPV.

Moving it to Monday and live might prove more fruitfull.

I don't agree with you tot, sorry but TNA has not gotten this much exposure ever.. I am sure there merchindise sales are up and are more main stream now then what they were a year ago. ratings only tell half the tale.. in short TNA NEEDED this kind of push.

okay i see where your coming from but you say tna is getting all this exposure from whom? the iwc is buzzing but thats it exposure would be when they get aj styles to appear on espn and regis and kelly. nobody outside the wrestling world knows of tna.

 

[ncwriter2908]

I think its a number of things. I think for one Hogan is just a man and can only hold interest for so long. I think it was up to those young guys to be interesting and hook in the new viewers which I think they failed to do. TNA at best average talented young guys. I do not see a WWE world champion on the TNA roster. Well unless they pull a Sheamus on us which is terrible. How did that nobody win the championship. I get blinded by his paleness just seeing him, anyway. I also think its Spike Tv itself. ECW got poor ratings, WWE got poor ratings, and now TNA gets poor ratins. Any company that has been on TNN or Spike has seen poor ratings or a ratings drop.

Also Monday night its a good wrestling night. Raw is on and even the casaul WWE fan will flip to TNA when Raw goes to commercial. I just think they should have been on from 8 to 10. Its good to steal that hour before Raw. Ratings will go up when they move to monday. Its just predictable. You already have people geared for wrestling that night.

Also wrestling is largely a male crowd. If it ever gets to a point were I would rather see men on men action in glorified underwear rolling on top of each other than seeing 3 sexy women in sexy outfits bending over a ring rope then I will stop watching the whole damn sport. Hell I make sure to catch the knockout matches. They are hot. Even more when TNA goes live maybe we will get another Tara butt crack shot (TNA camera man you didnt cut away fast enough I saw it..lol) or some other Tara wardrobe mishap. Hey Daffney is back against Tara this week and I can't wait. I just love Daffney she is so hot and Tara is also.

AJ vs Samoa Joe or Daffney vs Tara (with hopes of wardrobe mishaps) its a no brainer or it should be. If you have to think why Hogan does not draw ratings like the Beautiful People then maybe you and your life partnet should move to california.

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

This really isn't a huge surprise unless you're taking into account the new regime; the KOs have always been TNA's highest rated segments. For two main reasons 1) they're hot AND they can wrestle, and for WWE fans whose Divas usually get only the first half right and even then not always, that's a reason to pay attention and 2) Maybe, and call me crazy, it actually makes sense that wrestling segments in wrestling shows get better ratings than non-wrestling segments every here and again. The absolute fact is the Knockouts don't have fifteen minute long segments where they stand around talking (god, I hated the MEM, tangent), they spend most of their time, unlike the past couple years worth of main eventers, wrestling.

 

[HBK-aholic]

TNA had a lot of hype, their ratings went up. It's really as simple as that. They got a ratings increase somewhere in the region of .3 - .5, which is a huge success when your rating was only around a 1.0 before. They gained more viewers with the hype surrounding them going against Raw and Hogan signing. My point about this was always that while that ratings increase was very well done TNA, they needed to put on shows of exceptional quality to keep those new viewers and therefore high ratings. Maybe it's too soon to tell and things will pick up again, but I'm leaning towards the fact the shows WEREN'T of an overly high quality, and therefore people turned off.

Hopefully I'm wrong. I don't watch much TNA anymore, but I'd still like them to do well for a while, give us some storylines of interest in the new 'wars'. Overall though, they're going to end up being crushed.

 

[BladeRunner]

Yeah, since they were getting 1.0's as an average in 2009, I'd say things still look good because they're getting higher on average so far this year than last year.

Monday's being live are going to help them with this the most imo. I'm not one to look at spoilers, but many are, and going live would force those people to tune in to see if it's good or not. And, really, TNA is after those people specifically, the smarks as it were, who really love to follow everything there is about wrestling.

That's actually part of why I like TNA, they really try to give you what you want.

Also, core audiences really don't change that much if you look at the broad scheme of things. No one talks about WWE's ratings much, but they really don't change much at all. They change about as much as TNA's. Yet people obsess over TNA's ratings.

 

[STINGER71]

If TNA really wants to pull in the ratings they need to use STING more. Possiably let him renew his feud with Flair. STING was one of the big factors WCW won all the ratings during the Monday nite wars, b/c he was unpredictable where he came from, rafters,under ring,etc.

 

[pun2003hh]

I agree with the select few on this thread that blames the issue on the pre-recoreded shows and the Thursday timeslot. What supports this is that there was a pretty big drop off from the 1/4 live Monday show to the next recorded 1/14 Thursday show. No matter if spoilers may make some of the fans want to watch the show, traditionally pre-recorded shows have always performed worse then live shows. This is why Smackdown has always had subpar rating when compared to Raw (despite the fact that there were many years in the WWE where Smackdown produced a superior show.)

The other issue is one of speculation, but I guess we will find out if it holds water or not. TNA seems to believe that the biggest wrestling audience will tune in on Mondays then any other day. I tend to believe that an audience will tune in as long as there is entertaining content (and the results of the show aren't posted days or weeks in advance. Can you imagine if they posted the synopsis of an episode of Lost weeks in advance?) However, there is much evidence to support the Monday theory, namely the two highest rated pro wresting franchises in history aired on Mondays (Nitro and Raw of course).

 

[Pedro08]

I think the ratings drop is due to the fact that people tuned in to see what all the hype was about with Hogan coming in and now all the excitement is dying down.

It's true that spoilers can hurt viewership, but TNA could counter this by simply putting on good entertaining matches that would attract viewers. I'm sure that the Generation ME/Amazing Red vs. MCMG/Brian Kendrick match didn't turn off viewers, and maybe drew some viewers in.

My problem with TNA is that they focus alot of the current storylines around people who don't wrestle regularly, if at all. So you end up with alot of backstage skits and segments (unlike the Knockouts, as was pointed out earlier), which are points in the show where people would naturally change the channel.

Also, TNA just does a terrible job of promoting their main events on Impact and I think it shows in the breakdown of the ratings, as the end of the show is generally the lowest rated. They should be announcing the main event at the start of the show (when viewership is high) or at the end of the previous show and should hype it throughout the program. I think the WWE does a really good job at this.

The one example I can give of this working in TNA is the night of the 'Orlando Screwjob'. At the start of the show Hogan gave Angle the re-match at the start of the show for later that evening. That match at the end of the show was one of the highest rated segments of the show. I'm sure some people read spoilers on the screwjob occurring and tuned in to watch, but that proves my earlier point, it generated interest and people watched.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I think under Hogan's guidence IMPACT's ratings will continue to draw in the low 1.0's.

Of course, the problem is that they also drew 1.0 ratings without his "guidance." But, unlike before Hogan and his buddies came aboard, TNA now has to pay the salaries of these newcomers. I imagine The Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman can be had fairly inexpensively, but can you imagine what the company has to shell out to keep Hogan and Bischoff?

In addition to all that, there will be resentment from the employees who have been there all along about the salaries the new guys are getting. Remember when Samoa Joe was getting $700 a match and complaining about Kurt Angle, Sting and Kevin Nash coming in and making more than him? Now, it happens all over again with a new crop of talent.

When TNA first opened for business, they kept the payroll low because they knew they couldn't compete with WWE. I'd love to get a look at their books now to see what they're shelling out in salaries......and all this happening with the same low TV ratings as before.

Something's gotta give.

 

[shattered dreams]

My hope is that they decided to put everything else on hold while they set up the heavyweight division how they wanted to. My fear is that they do not plan on bringing some of those important pieces back into the equation now that they have somewhat accomplished that. As many have mentioned the knockouts have been getting ratings for some time. The most recent example is a continuation. I really do not like the way they have been booked thus far though. They have been getting one match a week, with wrestling quality often below what they are capable of, and had no match on the PPV. Between that and some random things I have heard during Hogan's media blitz I wonder if having "one of the boys" in power is going to hurt the knockout division. This is the key area they may be leaving some potential ratings untapped, hopefully it is not hubris that is behind it as much as some other valid reason like I mentioned at the beginning of the post.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As I read in an earlier post, the hype from Hogan's appearance in TNA has really died down. When it was announced that Hogan was coming to TNA, everyone knew that there was going to be a spike in TNA's ratings for a while before it would dwindle back down to numbers that they were pulling prior to his arrival.

With TNA moving to Monday nights permanently, and if TNA hypes the crap out of it, I wouldn't be surprised to see ratings jump back up for a while because of the interest having another wrestling show permanently on Mondays is likely to generate. A potentially downside to that is that, for now, only every other show on Mondays will be live. It's also been said that Hogan will wrestle on the March 8th episode of iMPACT! in a tag match with Abyss against Ric Flair and AJ Styles. While the match may well be shit, there'll no doubt be some people interested in just seeing Hulk Hogan wrestle on live television again as it hasn't happend in years.

For the past two weeks, iMPACT! has been drawing a 1.2 and that's still a pretty good number if you look over the entire history of the company. For the last 4 months of 2009, iMPACT! generally was only drawing around a 1.0, a few shows drew less than that, so iMPACT! is at least back to "average". On Mondays, as long as they can stay in the 1.2-1.5 range, they'll probably be happy and, of course, they'll always hope that the ratings increase beyond the 1.5 range.