By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Thursday night's episode of TNA Impact on July 29 averaged a 1.22 rating off a first hour 1.16 rating and second hour 1.28 rating.

As we covered on Friday, the show's 1.22 rating was the highest since February. Also, the second hour scored the highest second hour rating since January.

We also covered on Friday that the ratings increase was most-likely due to younger male viewers watching more TV than usual on Thursday night due to MTV's "Jersey Shore" debut. TNA was affected, as the male 12-17 demographic was up to a 1.21 rating compared to a 0.97 rating for the previous week's Impact.

Looking at the quarter-hour numbers, there was a steady upward climb throughout the show after weak 45-minute period in the first hour.

-- The show peaked in Q7 with a 1.33 rating for the handicap match with Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson vs. Matt Morgan and TNA security.

-- The low point was a 1.08 rating in Q3 for Ink, Inc. vs. Eric Young and Orlando Jordan with the ridiculous involvement of a mannequin.

-- The "ECW theme" within the show is worth examining. The show opened with a 1.23 quarter-hour rating for the talking segment with EV2.0 and Abyss. After the segment, the audience tuned out despite the top-drawing Beautiful People involved in Q2. Keep in mind the younger male demographic watching Impact and likely not connecting with the latest "ECW reunion."

In sum, Impact opened with a 1.23 rating, then dropped to a 1.11 rating in Q2 and a 1.08 rating in Q3. The show recovered to a 1.21 rating in Q4, then reached a 1.28 rating in Q5 to start the second hour.

Again, considering the younger demo, Q5 featured one of TNA's hottest acts, the Motor City Machineguns, against Beer Money in the latest installment of their Best-of-Five series. Also in Q5 was Matt Morgan's promo exchange with Mr. Anderson.

The sixth quarter-hour then dropped to a 1.21 for Rob Terry vs. Kazarian, plus two commercial breaks.

Impact then peaked in Q7 with a 1.33 rating for Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson vs. Matt Morgan and TNA security, following up on the strongly-rated promo exchange in Q5. The quarter-hour also featured Eric Bischoff's "big announcement" and promo exchange with Abyss.

After Q7, Impact dropped to a 1.28 rating for the final quarter-hour of the show. Q8 featured the end of Bischoff-Abyss with Rob Van Dam's run-in, then the TV main event of Tommy Dreamer vs. Abyss in a hardcore match.

Caldwell's Analysis: The talent who are fresher faces to the audience and who weren't staples of the Attitude Era seemed to connect with the younger demographic tuning in on Thursday. The quarter-hours show the Motor City Machineguns, Beer Money, Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Matt Morgan, and other fresher talent connected with the audience more than the ECW talent. The audience tuned out after the first quarter-hour featuring ECW talent, then there was a second drop for the main event featuring ECW talent.

With the younger demographic sampling Impact on Thursday, they appeared to be interested in the fresher, more youthful stars and Jeff Hardy, then tuned out for the older ECW talent they likely don't have a connection to since they were too young to be part of the Original ECW. It's a clear sign to TNA they need to focus on the fresher talent who weren't over-exposed during the Attitude Era and build the brand around those wrestlers if they want to re-build their audience after the Monday night experiment.

[MCMG art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]

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