By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The July 23 episode of TNA Impact following the Victory Road PPV averaged an impressive 1.31 rating, which was up 13 percent from the 1.14 rating for the lead-in show on July 16.

The ratings were very impressive across the board. The show did its highest overall rating since April 9, the first hour of the show (1.28) was the highest rated since April 2, and the second hour (1.35) was the highest since April 9. Estimated TV viewership was 1.8 million, which was the highest since April 9.

The one drawback on the show was the main event match and post-match angle. The Kurt Angle vs. Mick Foley match with "keys on a pole" was the lowest-rated segment of the entire show, drawing a 1.22 rating.

Again, the trend was a very nice start to the second hour before the final two quarter-hours dragged the show's ratings down. The fifth and sixth quarter-hours averaged a 1.43 rating. From there, the ratings fell off a cliff by 17.2 percent to conclude the show.

Looking at the demographics, the show was boosted by the 18-49 age range. Adults 18-49 was up to 0.74 compared to 0.57 the previous week. Males 18-49 was up to 1.09 compared to 0.89 compared to last week. Again, both demographics were the highest since April.

Following along, the ratings were up double digits in the long-term comparisons. Compared to the previous five weeks of TV, the ratings were up 11.2 percent. Compared to the previous ten weeks of TV, the ratings were up 12.3 percent. Compared to the entire 2009 ratings, the show was up just short of 10.0 percent.

Caldwell's Analysis: You can take a positive or cynical approach to the ratings jump. Or a positive-cynical approach. I'll explain the p-c approach. Positive cynical is that people really enjoy watching the TV product, want to find out what happened at a PPV, but don't want to spend any money on the PPV product because it's generally a disappointing $30 investment. Also, the free Impact shows don't do a good job of selling PPVs, so viewers just watch the free show to get their PPV news and check out the fall-out.

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