Impact Ratings

TV ratings for the April 23 edition of TNA Impact following the Lockdown PPV declined by 4.3 percent to a 1.23 overall rating. The previous week's show averaged a 1.28 rating.

In overall viewership, however, this week's Impact drew an audience of 1.8 million viewers compared to 1.7 million viewers for last week's show.

TNT's coverage of the NBA Playoffs won the night on cable TV among males 18-49, but TNA's demographic ratings showed improvement over the previous week's show.

Impact averaged a 1.00 among males 18-49, which was a decent increase from last week's 0.93 rating in the demo. Last night's male 18-49 demo was right in line with the April 9 episode's 1.04 rating.

Among males 18-35, last night's show averaged a 0.86 compared to 0.78 last week and 0.87 on April 9.

Looking at the quarter-hour ratings, the show started strong, dipped considerably in the middle, then finished strong. First hour averaged a 1.22 rating and the second hour averaged a 1.24 rating.

The first hour started strong with two quarter-hours of 1.24 and 1.25 for the set-up of last night's show. The rating steadily declined until the sixth quarter hour, then finished strong with a 1.26 and 1.29 in the final two quarter hours for the main event of Scott Steiner vs. Jeff Jarrett.

Caldwell's Analysis: Good showing from TNA up against the first round of the NBA playoffs. As the playoff games become more meaningful in the later stages of the Playoffs, I expect the male demographic numbers to decline, but TNA started on the right foot last night. We'll also have to see how well WWE on WGN held up in week two to see if viewers returned to Impact last night after giving Superstars a try for their Thursday night wrestling fix, even if the two shows aren't head-to-head.