IMPACT Moving Back to 9PM Time Slot May 30th

[It's Damn Real!]

@TNADixie:

BIG NEWS! Beginning May 30th, #IMPACTLive moves back to its old time at 9/8C on @SpikeTV! See ya Thursdays at 8/7C until then, though!

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They've been in the 8PM time slot for about a year, but from what I understand the first hour ratings have been really disappointing for them.

Bellator, I believe, was the reason they moved their time slot back, but Bellator will be doing scattered summer shows until the fall, so this could be an opportunity for Spike to try to figure out a solution to the ratings issue by potentially moving it into a later time slot or another day.

Thoughts?

 

[Thriller Ant]

I'm thinking this is a good idea. Since Raw moved to starting at 7, I know I've found myself shocked at how early it seemed when the show kicked off on multiple occasions.

The other aspect, which I would say is even more important, is the fact that it's summer. I don't have TNA's audience demographics or anything, but people are outside more and for longer during the summer, whether it's a kid's baseball game or a barbeque or whatever. By moving the time back, you give people a better chance of catching at least part of the show.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Things like this always scare me with shows I watch because it's often a sign that something is wrong or that the show is nearing its end. I'm not saying TNA is going away soon, but it's clear Spike is not happy about it in its current state. Plus this also screws up my DVR recording schedule. Now I have too many things on at 9pm on Thursdays, but that's irrelevant here.

I'm of the mindset that TNA improving will cause everyone to improve, so if moving days or times helps them become more publicly known, that's a good thing.

 

[Lowdown]

I figured this was bound to happen sooner or later. I know nothing about TNA's ratings, but it's heavy competition for the 8pm time slot during the week. Moving back to 9pm could help the show get some viewership back that it might've lost. Now if there's gonna be more bouncing with Bellator, perhaps Spike could conceivably move TNA or Bellator to a new night. I know it's not easy to shift live shows around, but it's something to consider. But I'm glad they're putting it back on at 9 again.

 

[ABMorales787]

Personally, I don't see it doing anything. Then again, I said the same thing about moving to 8pm and the ratings took a nose dive to Parts Unknown.

Hopefully, if ratings go up, it might help kill the overkill Spike obsesses over on Thursdays and puts Bellator on a different day. It's just silly to put 4 hours of live combat sports for them. It's deathly exhausting and can kill potential watchers that stick around after Impact and scare away interested Bellator fans who in the end will just watch the last 5 minutes of Impact.

 

[Miz_America]

Yeah, thats whats wrong with TNA, its in the wrong time slot. There's one thing and one thing only that MIGHT save TNA, and that's hiring Paul Heyman as head of creative.

 

[The Boss]

There seems to be a multitude of contributing factors. The tape delay schedule where they announced that they will begin taping at 7:30 without commercial interruption so they can conclude withing 90 minutes and air on tape delay.

Second as has been pointed out could be due to summer. Longer days, better weather = people staying out later. In this case it's a smart move on TNA's part to avoid that likely slump.

And of course there is the realization that moving to 8pm has not worked. This is an opportunity to get back to their original slot and perhaps improve their numbers as the 8-9 slot is what usually is the most disappointing.

 

[ABMorales787]

Yeah, thats whats wrong with TNA, its in the wrong time slot. There's one thing and one thing only that MIGHT save TNA, and that's hiring Paul Heyman as head of creative.

Yeah. Let's hire the guy who drove his own company into a financial death and have him save our economically downed company. Wise up.


One thing that bugs me about this time slot change is how fast it came about. The ratings truly started going down only the last few weeks and suddenly Spike approved to move Impact to 9pm. Given that, I'd say this was all a Spike move. Should they really be making such drastic changes on a dime like this just because of these drops? I'd say that affects viewership more than starting at 8pm.

 

[The Boss]

Yeah, thats whats wrong with TNA, its in the wrong time slot. There's one thing and one thing only that MIGHT save TNA, and that's hiring Paul Heyman as head of creative.

Despite what he claims, Heyman is not a creative man. He has no idea how to build stories, angles or feuds to dramatic climactic conclusions. All he knows is the climax, nothing of the build. Therefore his shows were never able to grow. He was forced to rely on shock value for the majority of his ECW years.

 

[Cereal Killer]

I think that this is a good move by TNA. It's not going to shift their ratings up to 3 or anything, this is the time slot they were in before, when their rating roamed around 1.1 and 1.2. Ever since the change, the ratings decreased to 0.9 or 1.0.

This was when the Aces & 8's first kicked off. TNA was buzzing at the time, and was the hottest wrestling promotion for that period of time. You had mysterious masked men attacking the TNA stars and you had Austin Aries win the TNA World Heavyweight championship. Everyone loved it, but the ratings decreased, after the time slot change. This shows us that the timings changing, affected the ratings, not the product. Moving back to 9PM can then raise the ratings back to 1.1/1.2. I don't know why, I'm not American, I don't know what else is on Thursday nights, but it may just raise the ratings that little bit, looking at the ratings from before the time change.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think the reason TNA is going this route is due to the second hour, currently the 9 pm hour, usually outdraws the first hour. Also, it usually outdraws it by a substantial margin.

It's not all that uncommon for the first hour of IW to draw under a 1.0 Nielsen rating while the second typically draws over that. So, simply put, TNA is hoping that the ratings first hour will get a boost the show is moved back to its original timeslot.

I don't think it will hurt anything and it's genuinely possible that ratings could go up. However, I highly doubt that the move will do anything to propel the shows numbers to significantly greater heights. At the most, in my opinion, I think that it might help TNA to get back into the 1.1 to 1.2 range, which is what it used to frequently draw once they moved back to Thursday nights and managed to rebuild their audience. Realistically, I think it's the most that TNA & Spike can expect or hope for.

 

[SpecialFNK]

this is good news for TNA.

as far as I remember, the 1st hour has always been lower than the 2nd hour. it's not just something new.
I can't remember numbers, but weren't the ratings for the 1st hour mostly in the low/mid 0.9's? while the 2nd hour would almost always raise up above 1.0's.

the product needs improving too. I wouldn't expect moving from 8 to 9 to all of a sudden have TNA drawing much better right away.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I think this says more about Bellator than TNA. It appears that the move to 8pm was to promote Bellator and fit it in on the same night. The double tapings can be handled with some tape delay on the first episode. Spike must feel that Bellator is failing or better off elsewhere to the point that it's not worth putting TNA in a tougher slot against BBT (although it's weird to do this now that traditional shows are going in to hiatus) and the first quarter of NFL games.

Oh well, I think that in general folks in the IWC will be able to better accomodate the later start, TNA is safe, and it's still bullshit that Dixie Carter's daddy won't adopt me and give me a great job.

 

[Weems2k]

I don't know. Impact has been at it's current time slot for about a year now. With all the interactive guides, DVR's, and advertising, you have to be a complete mongoloid moron not to know that Impact started at 8pm EST, and 5pm PST. Which leaves us the question, why does the 1st hr suck? Who knows really. 5pm on the west coast, a lot ppl are either at work, or just getting out of work. Maybe that might have some impact. No pun intended...

 

[Rayne]

Professional wrestling does always seem to do poorly from 8-9pm, and that goes all the way back to WCW Nitro. I don't understand it; I'd think that a professional wrestling audience would be amongst the most likely TV audiences to follow their programming to another time block, but they aren't and they don't.

They should get a small nudge in the ratings, just based upon there being more asses in front of televisions. The next step is to make it a product worth watching.