By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The official rating for last Thursday's episode of TNA Impact on August 5 is a 1.21 rating. This was based on a first hour 1.12 rating and second hour 1.30 rating.

The strong second hour rating was the highest since January when the January 21 and 28 episodes scored 1.30 second hour ratings.

As we detailed on Friday, the demographics flipped with a greater number of adult males (compared to a lower number of teenage males) tuned in compared to the previous week's show. Impact scored a 1.11 rating among males 18-49, which was also the highest since January.

Compared to other programming on Thursday night, Impact was ranked #4 among males 18-49. USA's Burn Notice & Royal Pains programming, MTV's Jersey Shore, and Discovery's Shark Week programming was ranked higher.

The quarter-hour ratings reveal Impact following the ideal pattern of building an audience over the course of the show. There was consistent, steady build-up throughout the show.

The first hour started with a 1.07 rating in Q1, then slowly built to a 1.19 rating (Guns vs. Beer Money) by the end of the first hour.

The second hour then started with a 1.29 rating, dipped slightly in Q6, then peaked with a 1.32 rating in Q7 (Flair vs. Lethal) before dipping slightly in Q8 (Dreamer vs. Abyss tag match) to conclude the show.

First Hour break down

The show opened with a 1.07 quarter-hour rating for Tommy Dreamer and Raven's verbal exchange. It was the lowest-rated quarter-hour of the show, following a recent pattern on Impact where the audience is slow to tune into Impact.

The audience remained slow to tune in, as the typically highly-rated Beautiful People segment of the show only increased to a 1.09 rating in Q2. There were also two commercial breaks and A.J. Styles vs. Rob Terry on the back-end of the quarter-hour.

The third quarter-hour increased slightly again to a 1.11 rating for no matches and all promos, videos, backstage segments, etc.

In Q4, Impact increased to a 1.19 rating for the Motor City Machineguns vs. Beer Money Ultimate X match. It was the highest-rated quarter-hour of the first hour and had the second-biggest jump from quarter-to-quarter during the show.

Second Hour break down

The biggest quarter-to-quarter leap during the show was from Q4 to Q5, which scored a 1.29 rating following the 1.19 rating for Guns vs. Beer Money. The second hour started with Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, and Sting's in-ring exchange.

After Q5, Impact dropped slightly to a 1.27 rating in Q6 for Orlando Jordan vs. The Pope, Matt Morgan and Mr. Anderson run-ins, and a Ric Flair promo backstage. Q6 also contained two commercial breaks.

Impact then peaked in Q7 with a 1.32 rating or the Ric Flair vs. Jay Lethal street fight. Q8 then declined slightly to a 1.30 rating for RVD's backstage promo, the TV main event of Raven & Abyss vs. Tommy Dreamer & RVD, and the post-match run-ins from Team 3D and The Sandman.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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