By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Thursday night's episode of TNA Impact from May 20 averaged a 0.95 rating off a first hour 0.90 rating and second hour 1.01 rating.

The show was up slightly from last week's 0.93 rating with the return to Thursday nights. Also, for the second straight week, the rating went up from the first hour to the second hour.

The first hour ratings are well off the pace from what TNA was doing on Thursday nights prior to moving to Monday nights, though. It could also be a case of viewers joining Impact in progress during the second hour of the show.

From January 14 to March 4, the first hour of Impact on Thursday nights averaged a 1.24 rating. The first hour of the May 13 and May 20 episodes back on Thursdays has averaged a 0.88 rating. That's a 29.0 percent decline.

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Looking at the quarter-hour ratings, the show opened with a 0.86 rating in Q1 and ended with a 1.01 quarter-hour rating in Q8.

The first quarter-hour was the lowest-rated 15 minutes of the show. Q8 drew the second-highest quarter-hour rating, trailing a 1.02 rating in Q6.

The second hour of the show delivered very consistent ratings without much fluctuation. The second hour started with a 1.00 rating, grew slightly to a 1.02 for the show-high in Q6, dropped to a 0.99 in Q7, and increased slightly to a 1.01 in Q8 to close the show.

Looking at the ratings from the beginning of the show to the end of the show, it appears TNA got some pop from the first-ever Jeff Hardy vs. Sting match in the final segment of the show.

However, looking inside the second hour numbers, it appears the match didn't deliver as strong of a pop as it could have (0.99 in Q7 to 1.01 in Q8) if TNA built up the match over the course of a few weeks rather than simply announcing it on the show and not allowing the audience to anticipate the match.

The first hour of the show opened with the show-low 0.86 rating, climbed slightly in Q2, and climbed again to a 0.94 quarter-hour in Q3 to mark the high for the hour. The quarter-hour rating dipped slightly in Q4 before the second hour opened with a surge to a 1.00 rating in Q5.

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