What’s the story?
Impact Wrestling continues to experience serious ups and downs in its brand new era, as the ratings for this week’s episode dropped from the previous week by a considerable margin. The April 27th episode had 255,000 viewers, a full 65,000 drop as compared to the 320,000 that tuned in the previous week.
Whilst these results are disappointing, the poor numbers came in the face of some seriously stiff competition.
In case you didn’t know...
TNA became Impact Wrestling at the beginning of March 2017. By changing the name and pronouncing the previous promotion ‘dead’, those in charge of the company hoped to reinvigorate the entire product.
The new era hasn’t gone as smoothly as planned, with viewers irritated by announcer bickering and no clear change in booking philosophy. A number of popular performers have also left the company, with Drew Galloway and The Hardy Boyz since returning to WWE.
The heart of the matter
Whilst it is easy to lay the blame on Impact’s poor television numbers on the show itself, the truth is that the promotion was up against some traditionally popular competition this past week. The show went up against the NFL Draft, which drew an immense number of 6.7 million viewers on ESPN as well as 2.5 million on the NFL Network.
Any wrestling promotion was going to struggle in the face of this competition, let alone one in transition such as Impact Wrestling.
The NBA playoffs are also taking place alongside Impact, however, this hasn’t led to such a drop in Impact’s numbers as of yet. The difference is clearly because of the huge numbers of viewers who tuned in to see how their sides would line up next season.
Most critics assume that Impact’s numbers will revert back to normal next week.
The impact
If the drop is viewed without context, this would be a worrying number for the company, however, the truth is that such a big fall was inevitable this week. The NFL Draft is one of the most highly-anticipated sporting events of the year, and the viewing numbers for the draft reflect that.
Author’s take
Impact Wrestling’s rebuilding is undoubtedly a long-term process, and as such, it would be foolish to take too much notice of individual numbers. That is without even taking the NFL Draft into account. Rather than ticking rating’s boxes, Impact should be focused on putting together a must-see product. The viewers will come in time, but it will take time.
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