Dettagli sui quarti d'ora di Raw e Impact!

Quarter * Raw * Impact * Total Audience

[1] * 5463 * 2866 * 8329
[2] * 5580 * 2026 * 7606
[3] * 5250 * 2158 * 7408
[4] * 5472 * 1785 * 7257
[5] * 6397 * 1783 * 8180
[6] * 5718 * 1891 * 7609
[7] * 5179 * 1810 * 6989
[8] * 5328 * 1955 * 7283


Here is how it breaks down. Impact did 2,866,000 viewers at the top of the 9 o'clock hour to Raw's 5,463,000. Shawn vs. Bret was not the highest-rated segment of Raw, and in fact Impact not only held its audience from the previous unopposed hour but actually grew. Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Hall, Nash and Waltman were compelling enough to prevent people from switching the channel to see the beginning of Raw. It pretty much cannot be argued that Impact being head-to-head hurt the rating for Bret Hart's return to the company. The total audience between the two shows was 8,239,000, the peak for the evening. It should be noted that despite the quarterly ratings, the minute-by-minute numbers show Impact viewers switching to Raw in growing numbers over the course of that 15 minutes.

At 9:15 when Hogan and company left and they did the Knockouts tag title match, Impact's rating plunged. They lost 840,000 viewers, by far the most they've ever lost in a single segment in all their years of existence. With that said, they were falling from their highest viewership of all time, so it's not as bad as it sounds. They were still at 2,026,000 viewers, which prior to this show was still above their previous Thursday-night record. Raw, on the other hand, with Maryse vs. Brie Bella, grew to 5,580,000 viewers. The total audience dropped to 7,606,000 viewers. So for history's sake, number one, Maryse vs. Brie Bella drew more viewers than Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels. Also, the 840,000 viewers who left Impact did not go right to Raw. At most, 117,000 did. The others apparently just stopped watching wrestling after the Hogan segment. A good portion of them returned later, so they didn't quit for the night.

Quarter 3 at 9:30 p.m. saw 5,580,000 watching the four-way for the IC title shot and Jericho meeting with Bret Hart on Raw, and 2,158,000 viewers watching Beautiful People playing strip poker with Val Venis showing up; Foley trying to get into the building; Raven & Stevie vs. Hernandez & Matt Morgan; and Pope's interview with the Orlando Jordan run-in on Impact. Total audience was down further to 7,408,000 viewers. Basically, it appears Raw lost some viewers to Impact (Raw dropped 330,000 and Impact rose 132,000), and some other viewers stopped watching wrestling. This was also, amazingly, the most-watched head-to-head quarter for Impact of the night.

Quarter 4 at 9:45 p.m. saw 5,472,000 viewers watching DX and Hornswaggle backstage and the beginning of the DX vs. Jerishow match on Raw, and 1,785,000 viewers watching Desmond Wolf vs. the Pope; several commercial breaks; Jeff Jarrett walking towards the ring; and the AJ Styles interview where Bischoff walked in and told him he'd be defending the title against Angle tonight on Impact. This is an important segment. Now, granted, it's one quarter on one week, but the facts are these. As much as people hate the Hornswaggle/DX segments, there was an extended one in this quarter and people DID NOT SWITCH TO IMPACT. Raw GAINED 222,000 viewers, most of which seemed to be people switching FROM Impact. Total viewership was 7,257,000, down again, so more people, pretty much all Impact viewers, turned off wrestling. Impact had this loss not only going head-to-head with DX/Hornswaggle, but also while featuring Jarrett (who they find important enough to be their top-of-the-second-hour hook) and their world champion.

Quarter 5 had a lot of people come back to wrestling. Raw did 6,397,000 viewers for DX vs. Jerishow and Vince's meeting with Randy Orton. This was, by far, Raw's highest-rated segment of the night. Impact with Jeff Jarrett's speech and confrontation with Hulk Hogan pretty much stayed steady with 1,783,000 viewers (they lost 2,000 people, statistically 0). Head-to-head viewership was 8,180,000, the second highest of the night behind the opening quarter, and ALL the added viewers went straight to Raw, which gained 925,000, a fantastic number all things considered.

Quarter six saw Raw plunge and Impact gain a bit. Raw did 5,718,000 viewers for the Evan Bourne vs. Sheamus angle and match. That's a drop of 679,000 viewers. You can't fault Sheamus as champion because the previous quarter was an aberration, and in fact if you take it out Sheamus -- and keep in mind he was the sole focal point of this quarter -- drew more viewers than anyone or anything else on the entire show, including Bret/Shawn and Bret/Vince. In other words, say what you will about Sheamus but what they are doing is working and it is strong evidence that Raw viewers want to see new guys getting pushed. Impact with Abyss vs. Joe; Bischoff and Lashley; Nasty Boys trying to get in; an Angle interview; announcers plugging the main event; and Hardy and Shannon leaving (yes, all in a single quarter) did 1,891,000 viewers, close to their previous Thursday record. That is a gain of 108,000, most of which probably came from Raw. Statistically exactly the same number of people were watching this segment as were watching segment two head-to-head, 7,609,000 viewers.

Quarter seven saw the total head-to-head audience drop to the lowest levels of the evening with Raw doing 5,179,000 viewers for several commercials, video packages and the start of the Orton vs. Kofi match, and Impact doing 1,810,000 viewers for the first half of the AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle match. What's notable is there was almost nothing of substance during this quarter for Raw, including two different commercial breaks, and Raw viewers STILL didn't bother switching to Impact, even with Angle vs. AJ for the title taking place. Impact dropped 81,000 viewers during this segment, and since Raw also lost 539,000 viewers that means a lot of people stopped watching wrestling here.

For the final quarter (we didn't get overrun numbers for Raw), Raw grew to 5,328,000 viewers for Bret vs. Vince with Impact also growing slightly to 1,955,000 for the end of the AJ vs. Angle world title match. Total audience was 7,283,000, so Bret vs. Vince didn't drive nearly the viewers one would have anticipated, less than Bret vs. Shawn and significantly less than the tag match.

What is most interesting is the TNA demographics. The show did a 1.84 in Males 18-34 and a 1.30 in Males 35-49. There have been several shows that have done numbers 35-49 very close to this one. But the Males 18-34 doubled from the usual number. While not surprising to a degree, because both Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair always drew better with younger viewers than older viewers, this kind of an audience shift is amazing. There were people expecting Hogan, at 56, to only draw an old audience looking for nostalgia and familiarity and then tune out. And that really didn’t happen. But, television nostalgia reunion shows often work, but they almost never have any legs.

As far as how it affected WWE, WWE’s growth to see Bret Hart’s return was strongest also in the same Males 18-34, up 48% from the normal audience, so it’s an age group that ranged from six to 22 when the Survivor Series incident happened that were the people most interested in seeing Hart. The show did a 3.52 in that demo and 3.22 in Males 35-49. The bulk of the Raw audience gain was Males 18 through 49, so it appeared the buzz regarding Hogan and Hart brought back a ton of people who usually don’t watch the shows. Whether either group ran strong enough programming to keep them back only time will tell.

We don’t have breakdowns for Raw, but I’d bet that when you look at the two hours, the gains or losses for Raw would coincide with gains or losses of Impact.

In the unopposed hour, a Nash interview and the ODB title win over Tara gained 182,000 viewers. A segment with Foley backstage, Kristal Lashley doing an in-ring promo with Bobby and the first vignette of the Beautiful People doing strip poker gained 121,000 viewers. Hall & Waltman showing up and the beginning of Hogan’s interview lost 106,000 viewers.

The Hogan interview, with Waltman, Hall, Nash and finally Bischoff coming out, which went head-to-head with the Hart-Michaels segment, saw Impact gain 258,000 viewers.

Taylor Wilde & Sarita losing the knockouts tag titles to Awesome Kong & Hamada, going against Maryse vs. Brie Bella, saw Impact lose 880,000 viewers, the most tuning out of the show for any segment in history.

Strip poker with Sean Morley showing up, Foley still trying to get in, Raven & Dr. Stevie vs. Matt Morgan & Hernandez, and a Pope interview with Orlando Jordan coming out; going against MVP vs. Jack Swagger vs. Carlito vs. Mark Henry for the U.S. title top contendership, saw Impact gain 182,000 viewers.

Desmond Wolfe vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero, a replay of the Hogan interview and a Styles/Bischoff confrontation going against a DX & Hornswoggle segment saw Impact lose 394,000 viewers.

The Jeff Jarrett/Hulk Hogan confrontation going against DX vs. Jericho & Show saw Impact gain 15,000 viewers.

Samoa Joe vs. Abyss going against Sheamus vs. Evan Borne saw Impact gain 61,000 viewers.

The first half of Angle vs. Styles going against Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston saw Impact lose 30,000 viewers.

The second half of Angle vs. Styles, plus the Foley backstage beatdown by Hall, Nash & Waltman going against the beginning of Bret & Vince saw Impact gain 167,000 viewers.

Based on what was said, and what fans said, Impact implied they will be doing more adult content, or at least less kiddie content, and would have old- time wrestling with blood and chair shots to the head. They claimed they would focus on wrestling, although the three hour show did not have much time allotted for wrestling.